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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23788774">Inherited Secrets</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookySkeletons119/pseuds/SpookySkeletons119'>SpookySkeletons119</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Demon Deals, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Friendly Demon, Grief/Mourning, Human/Monster Romance, Occult, Paranormal, Sometimes mean demon, if i ever get there</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:07:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>22,467</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23788774</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookySkeletons119/pseuds/SpookySkeletons119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the passing of her grandmother, a young woman discovers that her inherited ring holds secrets that, at first, horrify and bewilder her.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Female Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my very first original work, so feedback is especially appreciated, thanks and sorry if this sucks or the writing is weird, English isn't my first language.<br/>Also, I have made a picture of one of the characters, it will be linked in a following chapter.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anneliese’s gaze remained aimed vaguely in front of her, on the back of the person sitting on the bench ahead of her, staring into space, the remnants of pain still on her expression. Another tear traversed down her cheek, dragging more mascara along with it, dropping from her chin and landing on the soft fabric of the modest black funeral dress.</p>
<p>The elderly man sitting next to her felt no different, frequently rising a handkerchief to his face to dry his eyes; despite having been separated from his wife for years, the late woman had been the most important person in both his life and Anneliese’s, and being together at her funeral lessened the pain to a minor extent.</p>
<p>The air in the church felt heavy and thick, she didn’t listen, only heard, as another person stepped up and began a small remembrance speech about the departed. Yet another person she didn’t recognize, it wasn’t very strange, but strange enough to notice the amount of people that seemed very close to her grandmother, close enough to attend her funeral, give speeches, and become emotional, people who otherwise she would assume to be complete strangers, at least in regard to most of them. Through moist amber eyes, she could’ve sworn she recognized some of the faces, but her memory was fuzzy, her emotional state not helping her recall.</p>
<p>Experimentally, she raised her hand from her lap, only to see it still shaking, she closed her eyes, bringing forth more tears, even more so when her grandfather wrapped his hand around hers tightly. The gesture was meant to be affectionate and supportive, but when she glanced up to see the old man clearly struggling not to cry, she had to make an effort to do the same as she squeezed his hand in return.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>As soon as the ceremony was over, she stepped outside in the yard of the church, the warm summer sunlight beginning to dry her tears, barely registering the presence of other people, her mind being a cocktail of pleasant memories and anguish over what had been lost forever.</p>
<p>The healthy green grass next to the stone walkway only brought forth memories of a happy childhood with her grandparents, she was about to zone out again, until a black shape gently fell towards the ground right in front of her face. Startled, she jumped slightly and followed the object with her gaze, the sight of the large black feather made her blink with some confusion, especially as she glanced at the sky to see no sign of any kind of bird, let alone a large black one that had been flying above and lost a feather.</p>
<p>
  <em>Must’ve been carried by the wind or s...</em>
</p>
<p>Before she could finish her thought, an intense but inexplicable bizarre feeling struck her, she could only vaguely describe it as a silent beckoning, compelling her to search for something she had no clue of.</p>
<p>A few hairs rose on the back of her neck as she began to look around, blinking repeatedly to clear her eyes of the remnants of tears. When her gaze landed on a small group of people talking under a tree, a tall shadow behind them caught her attention; she squinted, believing she saw a vaguely humanoid dark shape that didn’t seem to fit as an actual shadow to any of the people there. She rose a hand to her face and rubbed her eyes in an effort to further clear her vision when she could’ve sworn that the top of the figure’s head formed multiple pointed ends, she quickly dismissed the thought of horns, but when she looked again, the shadow was considerably smaller, less dark, and reasonably fit one of the men in the group.</p>
<p>Anneliese frowned with mild confusion and swallowed, before she took a step towards the distant group, a woman’s voice interjected</p>
<p>“Anne.”</p>
<p>She didn’t react when she turned around and saw her parents.</p>
<p>“How’re you holding up, kid?” the scraggy man spoke up as he lit a cigarette.</p>
<p>Anneliese suppressed a scowl at her step-father, along with the unpleasant memories that flooded the moment she saw him.</p>
<p>“Fine.” Her reply was barely audible, and she didn’t care that it didn’t fool anybody.</p>
<p>The woman with blonde messy hair about to fall from her bun, who Anneliese could tell was on the threshold of drunkenness, shook her head and took a few steps forward, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, whose body went stiff with discomfort</p>
<p>“Look, honey, I know we haven’t been getting along great for a while but..” she lightly shook the young woman’s shoulder, trying to create an air of reassurance “We’re here for you, now that Joyce is gone, you’re free to come over whenever you want, yeah?”</p>
<p>It took great effort to not snap after hearing those words, and she mostly failed to suppress a scowl “Free to come over? Grandma kept me safe.” She didn’t hide the spite in her tone, nor care about how cryptic her words seemed from an outside perspective, and didn’t look at her step-father as she walked away at a brisk pace.</p>
<p>As soon as she got lost in the crowd, however, her pace slowed to a stop and the scowl on her face dropped back to the mostly neutral expression with remnants of hurt as she pushed away the unpleasant memories of her parents and returned to the ones of her grandmother.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>Stepping down the walkway towards the house felt surreal, everything looked perfect just as before, the vibrant colors of the neatly trimmed grass, the bushes, the assortment of beautiful flowers, yet something was missing, what gave them life, what made them and the house feel warm and inviting, at least to her, was gone. It all felt plastic and soulless.</p>
<p>Only a few steps further and she shook her head, dismissing those thoughts.</p>
<p>
  <em>Don’t say that, grandma wanted you to have this, to keep taking care of it like she took care of it and you for all these years.</em>
</p>
<p>She bit her lip to keep tears from wetting her eyes again and reminded herself that alone or not, this was her home now, and she was going to lovingly take care of it in turn.</p>
<p>After some slight hesitation, she opened the door and stepped inside the wide entrance hallway, her black shoes clicking on the pristine marble floor before she took them off. The coldness of the marble on her tired feet through the stockings added to the comfort of taking the heels off, and as soon as the giant living room on the right came into sight, her friend and the grey British shorthair cat both jumped off the couch to greet her.</p>
<p>“Heyyy, you’re back.” The red haired girl tried to speak with moderate cheerfulness and a smile, well aware of the situation and how her friend felt.</p>
<p>“Thanks for housesitting, Jess, or petsitting, whatever.” Anneliese tried to summon the gratefulness that she felt through her words during a brief hug.</p>
<p>A loud meow from the cat prompted her to pick him up in a gentle hug.</p>
<p>“Toby missed you too.” Jessica flashed a smile as she reached to pet the cat’s head.</p>
<p>“Well there’s gonna be a lot of missing going on in this house for a while, I’ll tell you that.” Anneliese exhaled deeply and continued after noticing the sad expression on her friend’s face “I’m sorry, it’s..”</p>
<p>“No, listen, I know it sounds cliché, but I’m really here for you if you need me, okay? Do you want me to stay the night?”</p>
<p>Anneliese shook her head quickly as she lifted the heavy cat in her arms more securely “Oh no, it’s fine really, don’t worry.” She insisted when her friend didn’t seem convinced “I’m.. actually gonna need some time alone to deal with some of this.”</p>
<p>That was convincing enough for Jessica, whose expression turned less concerned and more understanding “I get it, but the offer stands, alright? Whenever you need someone, always available, and I’m not the only one, you know that.”</p>
<p>Anneliese nodded “I know, I appreciate it..” she followed her friend to the door, exchanging a hug and goodbyes before parting ways.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>Returning to the living room after a shower, her eyes landed on the object resting on the coffee table next to the couch and antique armchairs, but made a quick walk to the door and locked it.</p>
<p>With some anticipation, she wrapped her bathing robe tighter around herself and sat on the couch, her eyes not leaving the small box wrapped in white paper on the coffee table. When her finger made contact with it, she couldn’t be sure if she felt a very faint electrical shock or if it was just her imagination, she shook it off and got the familiar object out of the box.</p>
<p>The gold band was adorned with three small garnet stones on each side of a symbol in the center that she couldn’t decipher more than she could the inscription written on the inside of the ring, she squinted, but she couldn’t even read it, let alone understand it.</p>
<p>The memory resurfaced of her grandmother showing her some jewelry as a child, the woman then singled out that particular ring and when she asked her if she liked it, of course she did, and she said so, which prompted her grandmother to say that it will be hers one day, seemingly on a whim.</p>
<p>A deep sigh left her lips, and with mild hesitation, she slid the ring on her finger. This time, she could’ve sworn the electrical shock wasn’t in her mind, she jumped slightly, only out of surprise. A confused and slightly concerned frown grew on her face, her gaze shifted from the ring to her phone that had been sitting on the coffee table, charging for the past hour. She swallowed and shook her head before dismissing the incident.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>Anneliese couldn’t say she was too surprised to notice an increase in the strange events happening in the house after her grandmother’s passing, it was no secret that the woman had been delving deeper and deeper into the world of the occult for the past decades, and the inherited house spoke volumes on it, some parts of it resembling more a museum or display of occult oddities than a house.</p>
<p>The unexplainable activity never got to the point of bothering her too much, especially with her grandmother’s reassurance that there was nothing malevolent in the house. Sure, the occasional giggle in the dark gave her some goosebumps, as did the times she’d wake up at the apparent sound of someone calling her name, only to find herself alone and safe and sound in her room. When her mother asked if she was going to sell some of the “junk” in the house, she had to suppress her anger and disgust at her disrespectful question and choice of words, and she didn’t comment when her step-father reminded his wife of how valuable the various antique objects, both occult and ordinary, stored in the house were.</p>
<p>On the way to the bathroom, her eyes would often land on the massive shelf in the wide hallway, snuggly fit against the wall behind which the stairs lead to the upper floor, the shelf adorned with a variety of ancient books and trinkets, admittedly, some creepier than others.</p>
<p>“Need to get an alarm system..” she whispered to herself, despite being in a very safe neighborhood, she felt much less safe being alone in the house. Walking past the kitchen, her eyes caught the nearly empty bowl of cat food, so she opened a cupboard and poured in the bowl until it was full, the sound of the cat food attracting her feline friend, who rushed with a pleased meow to eat. “And maybe a puppy. You’d get along, right?” she whispered again, this time with a weak but genuine smile as she pet the cat.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>The next few days were more emotionally challenging than Anneliese anticipated, she had changed her tear soaked pillow every night, she could barely fall asleep, and when she could sleep, it was shallow and restless. To make things worse, the increase in seemingly unexplainable events in the house were also worse than she anticipated, to some mild relief, some of them were beginning to slow down, what wasn’t slowing down, however, was the apparition that disturbed her the most. Be it day or night, it had been nearly a dozen times now that she caught sight of something tall and black right in the corner of her eye, but every time she turned around, there was nothing there. It made her feel like she was going crazy, every time it seemed so clear and present, even with the feeling of being watched, even with the feeling of sensing someone’s presence, but every time there was nothing there. As if that wasn’t enough, what occasionally accompanied the apparition was a singular dull thumping sound, as if something had been lightly bumped against a wall, which happened more frequently near the kitchen and the wide but not-so-tall doorways separating it from other rooms. It was all beginning to chip away at her nerves, which were far from in a good condition to begin with, it was making focusing difficult, especially focusing on studying, so in an effort to get some peace, she began using supposedly calming teas and sleeping pills.</p>
<p>At the very least, the sleeping pills seemed to have some positive effect, a yawn left her, and feeling optimistic about her chances of falling asleep quickly and easily, she closed the laptop resting on her lap along with the TV playing simply for background ambiance and made her way to her bedroom after making sure the door was locked.</p>
<p>To some relief, she had been right in being optimistic, as sleep took her considerably quicker and easier than the restless hours she’d wait in the past few days, she found it almost funny that she was too tired to even start crying again. Her eyes did tear up when she closed and opened them slowly, but she fell into restful sleep before she knew it.</p>
<p>Restful sleep that lasted only a few hours.</p>
<p>It was past three in the morning when she woke up seemingly for no reason, and immediately began hearing a heavy thumping noise. It was enough to awaken her fully that moment, when it was clear that the sound was growing nearer, she made the decision to get up and do something about it, only to be struck with the realization that she couldn’t move.</p>
<p>
  <em>Fucking sleep paralysis! Now of all times! It.. no, just relax, it’s happened before, it’s just hallucinations, breathe and try to fall back asleep, just your mind playing tricks on you, ignore it.</em>
</p>
<p>Ignoring it was easier said than done, especially when the noises, now sounding like heavy footfalls, stopped right outside her room, and her heart threatened to beat out of her chest when the door began creaking open, despite her best efforts to calm it and fall asleep.</p>
<p>
  <em>Shit! Calm down, it’s just.. it’s not real, it’s not real, just fall asleep.</em>
</p>
<p>Her efforts to convince herself fell even more flat as the footfalls stepped inside the room, and brought with them an unmistakable feeling of a real presence, she wasn’t nearly as sensitive to the paranormal as her grandmother, but even she could feel that presence clear as daylight.</p>
<p>Her breathing grew uneven and rapid, almost panicked, the thought of Toby crossed her mind, the cat would always sleep on her bed when she did, but she couldn’t see him, and she couldn’t turn her neck to look, at that point, she was so terrified she doubted she could move even if she wasn’t paralyzed.</p>
<p>Once again, her effort to slow down her racing heart proved fruitless, and as she felt the presence step to the other side of her bed right behind her back, it only beat out of her chest more frantically.</p>
<p>It was when she felt a pressure on that side of the bed that she finally snapped out of it, she jumped out of bed and landed on the floor with a scream, sweat staining her forehead as she frantically looked around the room. Nothing. Not a thing out of the ordinary, the door tightly shut and not a sound could be heard nor presence felt.</p>
<p>After a few more seconds of her eyes darting around the room, her frantic breathing and heart beat finally began slowing down to a near normal pace, she swallowed and gathered herself off the floor, only to freeze like a deer in headlights when she rose high enough to glance on the bed.</p>
<p>Toby was standing on the mattress, his back arched high, tail lifted, and his fur raised up like needles, all the while both his body and wide blue eyes remained fixed in the opposite direction she had been facing during the paralysis episode, the direction where she felt the presence behind her.</p>
<p>Forcing herself to take a few deep breaths and step to the door, she grabbed a blanket from the bed and it took some convincing before the cat moved from the spot and followed her downstairs.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>After not being able to fall asleep until the morning thanks to the sleep paralysis episode, Anneliese woke up curled on the living room sofa with the blanket wrapped around herself at nearly noon. It wasn’t a pleasant awakening, she jolted awake and her eyes began darting around the room momentarily, remnants of fear lingering in her from the previous night, until she quickly calmed down at the seemingly safe and bright room.</p>
<p>Her tired gaze then landed on the grey cat sleeping soundly on the antique armchair next to her</p>
<p>“I’m starting to envy you, you little bastard, you never have trouble sleeping.” She whispered to herself jokingly with a small smile that quickly faded as her thoughts returned to her bedroom, compelling her to come along.</p>
<p>She swallowed, if for no other reason, she wanted to do it as some kind of confirmation for herself that there really was nothing there, that there was no reason to be afraid. A cold shiver ran through her, she shook it off and fitted the blanket better around her shoulders, standing up with some hesitation.</p>
<p>
  <em>This is ridiculous, alone or not, this is still home, home has always been safe, get a grip.</em>
</p>
<p>After a deep breath, she dismissed any negative thoughts as irrational and made her way upstairs, where she found the door to her bedroom as closed as she left it that early morning when she left in a frightened hurry.</p>
<p>As expected, pushing the door fully open only revealed the brightly lit bedroom, both from the large window and the light in the hallway, with the messy bed she left behind.</p>
<p>Her eyes scanned the room, unsurprisingly, finding nothing unusual, no footstep imprints on the carpet, or anything that could provide any hint that someone had been there. When she listened carefully, all she could hear was the sound of birds chirping cheerfully in the branches of the nearby tree outside.</p>
<p>Another deep exhale left her, but this time out of relief, she tossed the blanket around her shoulders onto the bed and began tidying everything up.</p>
<p>Pillows were fluffed, bed sheets were straightened, blankets were spread, the white teddy bear she slept with since she was a child was placed back on the pillows, and only after everything was neatly in its place did she stop and put her hands on her hips with a satisfied smile.</p>
<p>Seeing as she was still in her night gown, she took a step towards the wardrobe, only to stop when her toe landed on something whose texture was noticeably different than the fuzzy carpet underneath it.</p>
<p>Glancing down, the black shape that stood out from the peach colored background confused her at first, but as she bent over and picked up the long feather, the confusion on her expression began mixing with a dose of dread.</p>
<p>Her gaze landed on the window, which had been closed the entire night, most windows and doors had, and the ones that hadn’t, were protected by nets to prevent insects and objects from getting in. She swallowed as her eyes returned to the feather, long and jet black, in pristine condition, just like the one that landed at her feet during the funeral.</p>
<p>She didn’t know if it was that memory, or that memory combined with the situation at hand, or something else entirely that made her suddenly feel sick to her stomach, she shook her head and rushed to the kitchen downstairs where she tossed the feather in the trash and jumped on the living room sofa.</p>
<p>As soon as she landed, her hand grabbed the phone on the table and opened the contacts, but right before she made a call, her fingers froze, allowing her to notice the way they trembled in the process.</p>
<p>
  <em>What.. what the hell are you gonna say? That you had a bad dream and found a feather in your house? Is that why you’re freaking out? Christ, they’re gonna think you’re losing it for real after you lost grandma.</em>
</p>
<p>She clenched her teeth together along with the phone in her hand, turning off the screen, raising a hand to her forehead and resting her head in it in exasperation.</p>
<p>*thump*</p>
<p>The dull noise, seemingly emerging from near the wall of the kitchen behind her made her shoulders jump up slightly, and a glance to her six confirmed that there was nothing there. As with every other time she heard it, she ignored it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I posted a link at the bottom of this chapter to an image of the new character, if anyone wants a visual, I'm not good at descriptions..</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Despite being exhausted, Anneliese had been staring at the ceiling for the past hours, it was well over midnight now, and trying to sleep in the guest bedroom did not help, and neither did the double dose of sleeping pills she took hours earlier.</p><p>She rubbed her cheek against the pillow to dry the skin better and moved some long chestnut strands out of her face, it had been a while since she cried, and that didn’t help her fall asleep either, on the contrary, she only felt more alert, much to her frustration. Her gaze landed on the phone next to her, she considered trying to listen to some supposedly sleep induction videos, or soft spoken podcasts, but dismissed the idea and rolled on her side.</p><p>It was so quiet, she was used to the sounds of her grandma and occasionally her friends busying themselves downstairs at late hours, chatting, watching old movies, discussing books and writers, cooking, the sounds muffled by the walls were always soothing to her and helped her sleep.</p><p>The silence was deafening.</p><p>She swallowed and suppressed some tears, briefly squeezing her eyes closed tightly, not wanting to cry a second time that night.</p><p>The temptation to give up on sleep and get up began creeping into her mind, growing stronger with every passing tens of minutes during which she failed to even get close to sleep, but despite her obnoxiously awake and alert mind, her body felt exhausted, too tired to drag out of bed.</p><p>Feeling the need to do something, however, anything but stare at the pastel colored walls and ceiling, she grabbed her phone from the opposite side of the bed, with the plan of listening to music and hoping to pass out during a relaxing song. When she reached for the stand next to the bed, she could barely grab the earphones, the thin cable slipped between tired, clumsy fingers.</p><p>“Dammit-” she muttered to herself, but instead of a soft clinking noise made by the earphones landing on the hardwood floor, a dull but loud banging noise made her jump.</p><p>Instantly, her eyes widened with vigilance, her body forgot most of the exhaustion, and her heart began thumping harder.</p><p>
  <em>Downstairs, t-that came from downstairs.</em>
</p><p>With a trembling hand, she grasped her phone tightly, quietly got out of bed, slid her feet in the slippers right next to it, and cracked the guest bedroom door open. Listening carefully, the only thing she could hear was her own rapid heartbeat, and a glance down the hallway showed nothing of interest, at least not in the low light coming from the half-moon.</p><p>A suspicious frown grew on her face, she knew her chances of sleeping would be even lower if she didn’t find out what had caused the noise.</p><p>One foot in front of the other, she stepped as softly as she could, just in case, while typing 911 on her phone, only one touch away from dialing.</p><p>The sound of something made of glass breaking near the bottom of the stairs, however, was enough to drain what little courage she had in regards to solving the mystery, she inhaled sharply, stopped dead in her tracks then began stepping backwards, as quietly as she advanced.</p><p>The color in her face drained the moment she turned around only to see the silhouette of a man clad in black stepping towards her with the same silence she had been exercising, the realization hitting her that he had been behind her the whole time, slowly approaching her.</p><p>A loud scream escaped her lungs, and before she could bring the phone to her gaze and touch the right spot to dial the police, the stranger had pounced on her and knocked the phone out of her hand, sending it falling down the stairs.</p><p>“Ah, fuck!”</p><p>An unfamiliar voice exclaimed from the floor below, frighteningly close, the realization that there was more than one intruder hitting her hard, but not as hard as the back of her head slamming against the wall when the burglar rushed her and pinned her against it, his gloved hand quickly pressing on her lips and muffling any noise she made.</p><p>She couldn’t move as she was held in place, but she could turn her eyes towards the stairs, and her heart sank at the sight of another man coming up and stopping in the corner at the top of the stairs upon seeing her.</p><p>His chest rose and dropped with a heavy exhale, as if some inconvenience just occurred.</p><p>“Fucking great, this is all that clumsy asshole’s fault, fucking amateurs.” The man spoke, and through the panic, Anneliese could only assume he was referring to yet another intruder, she felt weak in the knees with fear and regret, kicking herself for not getting a home alarm system earlier.</p><p>A new type of fear and series of concerns struck her when the man pinning her to the wall grabbed her neck tightly and pulled her back, holding her arms behind her back, then sunk his face into the crook of her neck before speaking</p><p>“She smells so nice though, how about a little fun?”</p><p>At that, she immediately squirmed and a few sobs escaped her, prompting the man to tighten his grip on her neck and wrists to a painful extent, beginning to restrict some of her air flow.</p><p>To the mildest relief, the expression of the man in front of her suggested that he vehemently disapproved of the other’s suggestion.</p><p>“Are you fucking kidding me, did you hear what I just said a minute ago?” the irritation in his tone was obvious, but when he began stepping towards her, her body tensed up even further.</p><p>“Hey! Where’s the damn screw? The big one!” Yet another unfamiliar voice shouted from downstairs, the dread growing in her at the fact that there were at least three confirmed intruders in her house, and they were likely armed, and they had malicious intentions. Once again, however, she felt the slightest sliver of relief since the call from downstairs made the man in front of her stop in his tracks, she prayed that he would go downstairs too, increasing the low chances she had of wrestling herself out of the grasp of the man behind her.</p><p>To her chagrin, he only glanced down the stairs, in the direction of his buddy, and raised his voice again</p><p>“In the fucking bag, with everything else!”</p><p>“It’s not!” the third man shouted back, over sounds of hurried searching and metallic clinking.</p><p>The shoulders of the man in front of Anneliese dropped, and a hand rose to his face in exasperation, when he began turning back in her direction, more of her fear returned.</p><p>Fear which, the moment she saw the double take he did and the expression on his face upon glancing in the direction of her and the man behind her, began mixing with confusion and different concerns.</p><p>The way the intruder in front of her looked like a deer caught in headlights as seconds kept passing was beginning to unnerve her, and she wasn’t the only one, since the grip on her neck loosened enough to allow her to breathe comfortably, before the man behind her spoke</p><p>“What?” There was a hint of faux, nervous amusement mixed with concern in his voice, as if he thought some sort of prank was being pulled on him “What is it man?”</p><p>The stunned man didn’t make a sound, nor move in the slightest, and the ghastly look on his face didn’t budge either, it was enough to noticeably spook the one behind her, his voice rising with a clear tone of concern and annoyance</p><p>“What the fuck is it? Think you’re being funny? This isn’t fucking funny, come on, what do we do with this little bit-”</p><p>The sound Anneliese heard next was easily the most gut-wrenching one she had ever had the misfortune of hearing, shredded skin, muscle, arteries and even some bone crushed between powerful jaws, blood immediately spurting forth, showering the wall at their side and half of her face.</p><p>Instinctively, she closed her eye on the side of her face that became drenched in blood, her jaw dropping with shock and dread, followed by the body of the man behind her, dropping to the floor with a thud and stomach-churning gurgling sounds as a pool of blood quickly formed around the massive hole in his neck that the bite had caused.</p><p>The blood loss was so severe that the intruder stopped struggling within seconds, and when the horrific sounds of blood gurgling stopped distracting her, she felt the unmistakable sense of a presence looming right behind her.</p><p>The dread was so overwhelming she doubted she could even turn around, let alone run away.</p><p>If she wasn’t already on the brink of collapsing from fear, the expression on the man in front of her could’ve threatened to do that to her by itself, an ear piercing scream emerged at the top of his lungs before he got back on his feet and bolted downstairs, Anneliese hadn’t even noticed that at some point during her shock he had fallen backwards at the sight before him.</p><p>When the creature emerged from behind her and rushed after the man downstairs, the possibility that she could be having a very realistic nightmare seemed fairly reasonable.</p><p>The low light in the hallway did not help, all she could distinguish was its massive frame, its dark color and the three long pointed shapes following behind it, the outer two dragging on the floor.</p><p>And then she heard the sound it made as it rushed downstairs, the memory of the night of her sleep paralysis episode instantly came back to her mind, the footfalls were identical, albeit hurried at the moment. It was a terrifying realization, made significantly worse by the deep guttural growling that came from the creature, further freezing her in place with dread.</p><p>Anneliese felt weak to her knees again, but with a much different type of fear, the fear of the unnatural and of that that shouldn’t exist, her breathing increased drastically while her heart skipped a beat and threatened to beat its way out of her chest.</p><p>It was the next sound that made her crumple to the floor, the lung-tearing scream emerging from one of the intruders downstairs, piercing her ears at the same time as the sound of flesh tearing and blood pouring heavily on marble floor.</p><p>“This isn’t real, this isn’t real, you’re dreaming, wake up, wake up, wake up.” Anneliese kept whispering into her hands as she rested her back against the wall and urged her mind to awaken from the nightmare she tried to convince herself she was trapped in “Wake up, wake-“</p><p>A few rapid, heavy footfalls were followed by another anguished scream, she wasn’t sure if it was just the darkness, or if her vision was threatening to fade, her mouth dry from being on the border of hyperventilation.</p><p>Then, once the last screams stopped, all she could hear again was her own frantic heartbeat and breathing, she placed her hands over her mouth tightly and listened carefully, not knowing how much more she could take when she began hearing the footfalls coming back up the stairs, her eyes turning in that direction.</p><p>Seconds felt like minutes as she waited, she didn’t know what she wanted, a part of her screamed to look away, that it was better to remain ignorant, another part told her to run away, that she would surely be next, that possibility seemed even more likely when she recalled the dead body right next to her that she was so distracted she almost forgot about. Another, much smaller part, wanted to satisfy the morbid curiosity of what could have possibly killed the man next to her and caused the agonized screams of the other two.</p><p>As the figure ascended up the stairs, it was even worse than she expected. The first thing she saw were two round, near glowing red orbs. Atop its head, she could only guess there were horns, and as the entity stepped on the same floor she sat on, she could’ve only estimated that it was somewhere between seven to eight feet tall.</p><p>A large hand tapped the switch on the wall, and when the light came on, she could see the long pointed claws on each finger. Charcoal black skin covered the entirety of the humanoid creature, as it stood on tall, bizarre, half-bent legs, the lower part of them reminding her of those of a horse. Yet, instead of hooves, they ended in a few long, thick toes that resembled those of a raptor. It wore nothing but a long red silk-looking loincloth on which an unfamiliar black symbol was embedded. A silver medallion of another symbol which she could’ve sworn she saw before was hanging from a silver chain around its neck, while on its back she could see two folded black feathery wings, their tips dragging on the floor. Its face, however, was the last straw that broke the camel’s back; her fear was confirmed, those red orbs were eyes, and those were two dark brown sets of horns, the skull they were attached to resembling that of a human, albeit with no ears, nose, and a lipless maw full of large pointed teeth stained with blood. She could even see pieces of flesh stuck between them, flesh that belonged to the dead man next to her, while the blood on its muscular humanoid chest was hard to distinguish due to the dark grey, nearly black color of the skin.</p><p>Anneliese’s vision began fading and she felt her upper body falling down against the wall, she wished so much she could move and run when she heard the creature speak, its voice low and gravelly, yet with a tone of annoyance and, she couldn’t accept, a hint of concern as well</p><p>“No, no, wait!”</p><p>Before everything went dark, she saw glimpses of the creature rush to her and crouch to her level, dark claws reaching for her, but stopping, she wasn’t conscious enough to properly acknowledge the fear anymore, and could only hear the next muffled words, which deeply confused her, leaning to believe that her mind was playing tricks on her in its process of shutting down</p><p>“If you die of a heart attack it’s just not fair!”</p><p>**</p><p>When Anneliese woke up, it was in a panic and confusion and after a big splash of icy cold water on her face, and much to her chagrin, the first thing she saw was the same creature from before, crouched next to her, a large empty cup of water in his clawed hand.</p><p>Her eyes widened like saucers and her heart and breathing picked up drastically almost immediately upon seeing him, she began shuffling away, but only made it a few seconds until her hand landed in the pool of blood and her progress was halted by the body of the dead man right next to her.</p><p>“That’s a weird way to welcome a guest, getting all fainty, do I really have that effect on the ladies?”</p><p>He spoke and cocked his head to the side at her, she could almost feel that deep guttural voice in her bones, she felt trapped, a dead body behind her and a monster in front of her, all she could do was place a hand on her chest in an attempt to calm herself, which further stained her white night gown in the process.</p><p>“Yeah yeah, take a deep breath, relax, all that good stuff, you’ll get over it.” He glanced around and sniffed the air “All gone, nobody else around.” she blinked repeatedly and made an effort to slow her racing heart and breath, still clinging to some minor hope that it was all a nightmare that would end soon “Anyway, aren’t you going to say anything? You <em>do</em> speak, right? You speak to that cat but not to me? What, do I need some hair before you’ll speak to me?”</p><p>Something then caught her eye, she glanced behind him only to see a massive black fleshy tail, tapered to a point, perhaps longer than she was tall, slowly swinging side to side. It was almost mesmerizing, she didn’t know for how many seconds she had stared, bewildered and shaken by the entire situation, before he hunched closer to her, making her jump</p><p>“I-I’m sorry- I..” she made an effort to gather her words after being at a loss for them for so long, letting out a deep exhale before continuing “I am.. very, very confused.. and scared.. w-what just happened?”</p><p>The areas above his eyes, which were slightly raised, vaguely resembling hairless eyebrows, then raised further, and he pointed a clawed finger at the dead body “Bad guys came.” He spoke slowly, as if trying to make a child understand a concept that they might not be ready to understand, then pointed his finger at himself “I helped.”</p><p>Anneliese would’ve felt insulted if she hadn’t been so terrified, and admittedly, a part of her was still insulted, but she didn’t dare express it, she cleared her throat, and while her breath and heartbeat had thankfully slowed somewhat, she still had to make an effort to keep a steady voice</p><p>“I guess I should say-.. ask.. W-why? Why did you help?” her voice dropped to a nearly inaudible level “And what the fuck are you..” despite almost only mouthing the last sentence, she still regretted it the moment it came out, suddenly fearing for her life even more.</p><p>At that, the creature took a step back while remaining crouched, his eyebrows drawing together, his words confusing Anneliese more</p><p>“Uh.. No, look, listen.” To her dread, the small relief that came when he backed away was replaced with more fear and anxiety when he suddenly leaned close to her again, several inches from her face, she couldn’t look into his eyes for more than a few moments, the patterns in them were mesmerizing, like a wispy kaleidoscope of various shades of red, with pupils in the center of the darkest red that resembled narrow bottomless wells, but it was too intimidating, she had to look away “Let’s just say, I <em>had</em> to, and if I say I’m not going to hurt you, are you going to stop freaking out? Because those are both true.”</p><p>Anneliese swallowed and threw a quick glance at him, trying to compose herself “I’m not freaking ou-“</p><p>“Yes you aaaare..” he interrupted with a tired voice, as if he was stating the obvious, and sniffed the air in front of her “You reek of panic and fear like a hobo of yesterday’s garbage.”</p><p>She couldn’t help but frown at his words, they made her try to prove him wrong, she began standing up on unsteady legs, leaning against the wall</p><p>“Yeah, that’s it..” his whisper unsettled her, he didn’t stand up until she did, and when he did, she wasn’t too surprised to see that he towered over her by well over a foot. “Now-“ he paused when she tried to take a step back, only to stumble over the dead body behind her, large charcoal black fingers wrapping around her wrist before she fell backwards, pulling her back on her feet “Now.. got a bit of a mess on our hands, don’t we?”</p><p>Anneliese said nothing as she watched him grab the body by the leg and begin dragging it down the hallway, she took a step away so his tail wouldn’t touch her leg as he turned around, she was still too overwhelmed by what had happened in the past minutes, and even more so by this monstrous creature that spoke to her, helped her and told her he wasn’t going to hurt her, she didn’t know if she believed him, but had to admit, if he wanted her dead, he could’ve done so a while ago, with virtually no effort. Only when he dropped the body in front of the open door to the bathroom on the left and disappeared down the stairs did she realize that his skin felt almost like a human’s, slightly rougher, but warm.</p><p>A heavy dose of anxiety returned to her upon seeing the two other dead bodies that he brought up and tossed over the first one, not only did it confirm that he had killed the ones whose screams she had heard from upstairs, but the realization also hit her in full force that she had three dead bodies in her house and no way to rationally explain it. The thought of trying to tell the police that a tall dark and not-so-handsome demon had killed them while they tried to rob her crossed her mind and almost made her laugh at the absurdity of the scene and claim.</p><p>“This would be the.. easiest room to clean blood from, would it not?” the demon’s voice snapped her out of it, she looked to see he was pointing at the open bathroom.</p><p>Taking a few cautious steps towards him and the pile of dead bodies at his feet, she glanced into the pristine white-tiled bathroom and vaguely nodded, after which he immediately grabbed and tossed them inside one by one, not stopping when she then shook her head and spoke</p><p>“I-I don’t understand, what’s easy cleaning got to do with it, there’s a lot more to worry about, there’s dead bodies, if I don’t get rid of them I’m going to be in some serious, <em>serious</em> trouble with the law, there’s freakin blood everywhere, I have to somehow get it out of the carpets, I can’t take it to a cleaner, I-I can’t just take these people out in the back yard and dig holes, if a neighbor or anyone passing by sees I’m fucking dead-“ her hands rose to her head and her fingers dug into her hair in frustration and anxiety, the creature silently watched her as she continued “Holy shit what am I gonna do, put them in a bag and in the trunk and drive to the middle of nowhere and hope for the best, maybe?” she was whispering to herself now, her unfocused gaze shifting around while her brain tried to come up with a viable solution “No, I can’t just drive around with a bunch of dead bodies in the trunk, if I get caught I’ll be in even more trouble than if I just.. just..” even if her words hadn’t faded, he would’ve interjected</p><p>“Just stop..” his voice was even lower than usual, but didn’t sound irate, it grabbed her attention, and made her take a small step backwards when he leaned down towards her, placing his palms on his thighs “Look.. before we go any further, I think we need to settle this.” The last words somewhat unnerved her, it was obvious from her expression, so he continued, his voice changing to an almost gentle tone “To explain. Who I am, why I’m here.”</p><p>Anneliese’s arms raised to wrap around herself in a subconscious protective gesture, there was relief in the prospect of getting some much needed answers, but it also brought some fear into her.</p><p>She only nodded, and when he began walking away, she stepped to the side again to avoid his tail brushing against her leg, then followed several feet behind him.</p><p>Her eyes refused to leave him as they made their way downstairs, she tried not to externally react at the realization that the black feathers on his wings looked virtually identical to the one she saw at the funeral and the one she found in her bedroom, she also now understood what the three pointed shapes that followed him when she saw him the darkness were, the tips of his wings and tail, she rolled her eyes at herself for solving that difficult mystery. Her gaze then landed on his horns, remarking to herself how the curled pair reminded her of those of a ram albeit bigger and longer, while the texture appeared similar too. When her curious gaze then slid down his back, she could recognize the shapes of his muscles as the shapes of a normal man’s muscles, but the tail, whose texture appeared identical to the texture of the rest of his skin, was completely alien. She watched with a slight frown as it slowly swung side to side with each step he took, through the hole in the back of his loincloth that fit the thick base of the tail. An urge to touch both the tip of the long appendage swinging near her feet and the silky-looking material hanging from his hips rose in her mind before she quickly dismissed it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A picture of the demon: https://i.postimg.cc/NF1VSs9Y/demonboi-0-75x.jpg</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once they reached the living room, Anneliese stopped in the middle of it as she watched him hop on the récamier and try to make himself fit, dangling an arm over the raised end and backrest, one foot resting on the lowered end of the furniture, while the other leg fell on the floor twice, before he gave up trying to fit it and let it stay down.</p><p>She almost grabbed her forearm to pinch herself, the sight of a massive inky black demon trying to fit on her grandmother’s antique white récamier with flowery decorations was beyond absurd, a part of her found it comical, but the situation at hand allowed no room for amusement.</p><p>A few moments passed as he stared at her in silence, she began feeling awkward, until he gestured with his head for her to sit on the sofa that was next to him, and she obliged, albeit with some hesitation, she sat on the end of the sofa farthest away from him.</p><p>Still not feeling comfortable staring back at him, she tried to wait patiently for the much needed answers that were promised as her gaze mostly remained on the floor in front of her, hands resting on her knees that she kept tightly together. The ticking of the antique grandfather clock in the otherwise dead silence only made her feel more awkward, more like the time was crawling by, she snuck a glance at the demon lounging on her grandmother’s récamier, his eyes shifted in her direction, and then around the room, he kept trying to make himself more comfortable on the furniture that was clearly too small for him.</p><p>A faint frown began showing on her eyebrows after she looked away.</p><p>
  <em>Are you.. comfy enough to tell me what in the unholy fuck you are, why are you here, and if you’re going to bite my damn neck off like that guy’s?</em>
</p><p>She suppressed a shudder at that mental picture, and the temptation to vocalize her thoughts grew, but she suppressed that as well, choosing to pick her words more carefully after she cleared her throat</p><p>“Well? Would you kindly tell me why you are here, and.. W-what in the world you are?” despite trying to keep her tone as polite as possible, she still feared crossing any lines, throwing a quick glance at the trail of blood leading upstairs.</p><p>“Huh?” he turned to her, red orbs appearing even bigger than before, eyebrows raised, sounding genuinely confused, before a realization seemingly hit him “Ooh that, you still wanna talk about that?”</p><p>Anneliese’s jaw briefly dropped with bewilderment as her frown deepened and occupied her entire face, her voice rising by itself “What the f.. what do you mean if I still wanna talk abou-“</p><p>“Almost a couple decades ago when you were a wee lass, your grams left some gift wrapping paper in the bathroom, and a pile of detergent on the washing machine.” He interrupted, his words further confusing her at first, but as he continued, the expression on her face morphed into complete disbelief “And you- heh” a brief chuckle left him “You thought it was pixie sticks powder!” his eyes narrowed, and the laugh that erupted from him, higher in pitch than his usual voice, but still gravelly, sent chills down her spine “You started cutting up the paper and putting the detergent on it, trying to make candy!”</p><p>Anneliese couldn’t believe her ears, the embarrassing story was something neither she nor her grandmother told anyone, partly because the woman felt so bad and guilty about the accident, about her choice in placing the objects where a naïve child might find them both and draw the wrong conclusions, and partly because she feared getting in trouble with child custody rights. Her hands rose to her mouth in disbelief, she was a mix of confusion over how something like this creature could possibly know about that incident, terrified by his laughter, and at the same time, annoyed and insulted by his amusement about the unpleasant event.</p><p>“That’s not freakin funny, I got hurt! H-how do you even know-”</p><p>She only listened as he continued the story, stunned that he kept getting every detail right</p><p>“Yeah! You made a mess of paper and detergent, fashioned something that looked like the candy you wanted, then happily skipped along to grams and proudly showed her your creation. She was- hah-“ he suppressed another chuckle “She was confused, and after you bit into that detergent stick she realized what you did and treated the burns in your mouth!”</p><p>Anneliese’s forehead dropped to her palm, she did her best to ignore his hoarse wheezing laughter, her mind racing a million miles an hour in the search of a reasonable explanation for why something like him could accurately recite an incident that she and her grandma promised to keep a secret. After all, it had only been an accident, and when her grandmother explained that if people knew, it was possible that she would be returned to her parents, the dreadful prospect causing them both to quickly swear to keep the incident a secret, as well as the woman promising to her and to herself to be more careful in the future.</p><p>“How.. how in the world would- would anyone, let alone..” despite his clear amusement and presumably good mood, she still feared the possibility of provoking his ire by insulting him, so she chose her words more carefully “Just, how do you know?”</p><p>The laughter came to an abrupt halt, and she almost fell off the sofa when he suddenly jumped on it, right next to her, she was too frightened and uncomfortable by his proximity to worry about the claws on his toes damaging the soft material under them, she leaned as far away as she could without making it seem too obvious that she was leaning away.</p><p>She was wholly unprepared for his next words, spoken in a casual tone as he turned to her</p><p>“She told me to stay with you.”</p><p>It took Anneliese a few moments to process that sentence, her logical brain suggested that the subject in it had to be her grandmother, but she refused to accept it, it made no sense, she looked back at him with a deep frown of bewilderment</p><p>“Excuse me?..” was all she could muster to say, barely over a whisper</p><p>The creature’s shoulders dropped, and an exhale left him, sounding almost like a horse, but deeper</p><p>“Do you think she gave you that ring just cause it’s pretty? That specific one? She <em>bound</em> me to it.” He leaned towards her again, his tone more serious, and her eyes briefly darted to the ring on her finger “After she and gramps separated, her visions of your horrible death got worse, her fear of something bad happening to you got worse, of course she knew he and herself were gonna die, and you know damn well how she felt about your parents, she didn’t trust anyone else to look after you, she couldn’t allow herself to die after all those visions and with nobody to protect you, so…”</p><p>A new dose of turmoil drowned her mind, she shook her head “W-wait what are you talking about? The ring, vision of my- when, she never told me-“</p><p>“Of course she never told you, what could she say, that she sees you dying in agony when she closes her eyes at least once a week? I said she wanted to protect you, didn’t I? So she bound me to this ring that she insisted you have after her death, told me to tell you these secrets hoping that it would give you <em>some</em> measure of trust in me, or at least in the fact that I’m telling the truth.”</p><p>It was all too overwhelming, slowly, she stood up on weakened legs and took a few unsteady steps away, her stupefied mind didn’t register the long trail of blood coming from the entrance door and going up the stairs anymore</p><p>“Grandma made a pact with a demon..” her words could barely be heard under the hand over her mouth, while the other arm wrapped around her waist</p><p>“You don’t have to make it sound so.. <em>dirty</em>, you know.” He briefly cocked his head to the side until the bones cracked “In the bad way.” His words barely registered in her mind as well “If you put it like that, it comes with all the baggage and bullshit you know from fiction books and movies and.. shit.” A deep, shaky exhale left her “It’s not like that. Well, not always..”</p><p>When she glanced at him, she had to admit she saw him in a somewhat different light, an ever-so-slightly more positive one, it was all still so much to process and she still felt emotionally overwhelmed, she swallowed and tried to slow her racing mind before speaking</p><p>“I’m sorry.. this is all.. so, so much to take in right now.” He stood up, rather slowly and casually, but it still made her take a step back “I-I think I’m gonna need some time to process all of this.” Her arms rose to wrap around herself as she slightly hunched over, feeling more lost and small than she felt at the funeral.</p><p>Him taking a step back too surprised her, it seemed almost considerate of her discomfort, not wanting to add to her burden by being too close to her, and she could’ve sworn he seemed almost uncomfortable himself judging by his voice and the way he tried to gesture towards the stairs</p><p>“Maybe you should.. go and rest, for a while. Think it through. Well, I mostly mean just try to accept it, cause nothing’s gonna change, I can’t go anywhere. So.. go ahead, maybe get some sleep too.”</p><p>Anneliese swallowed at the thought of sleeping when he was in the house, although she couldn’t deny that her fear of him killing her had considerably dropped once he explained the entire situation. She nodded weakly, took a few steps towards the stairs, but then stopped and turned around, her fingers digging into her hair, her eyes momentarily squeezing shut, sounding like she was on the brink of sobbing when she spoke</p><p>“There’s fucking dead bodies in my house!”</p><p>He raised a hand at her in a calming gesture, but she continued “There’s dead bodies in my bathroom on top of fucking everything that’s happening-“</p><p>“I’ll take care of it!” the demon’s slightly raised voice startled her, although he seemed more like trying to convince her than intimidate her</p><p>She threw a quick glance at him then shook her head, her mind still swimming with the overwhelming emotions from the past hour, especially those caused by the information she received about her grandmother “How?!” her voice raised too, mostly by accident, she quickly lowered her volume “How, the floor in the basement is concrete, we can’t dig a hole there, and burying bodies there would be fucked up even if we could, I already said I’m not gonna drive around with dead bodies in the trunk of my car, a-and the garden-“ she interrupted herself as she dashed to the large, tall windows of the living room and began closing all of the cream curtains before making sure the door was still locked “<em>Don’t</em> go outside, if a neighbor or anyone sees you, I.. I don’t know, I don’t want any- I need..” her words faded and her hands returned to her head in deep anxiety and frustration.</p><p>“I need to lie down..” she spoke gently and dropped her arms to her side, finally accepting that she needed to slow down mentally and emotionally.</p><p>As she began walking to the stairs, a quick glance behind her was answered with a nod from the creature, she didn’t know how he planned to take care of the problem, but at that point she wasn’t in any condition to involve herself in the solving of said problem without at least a small break.</p><p>Taking what little comfort she could in the fact that the windows that could see out in the street were blocked and the door was locked, she slowly made her way up the stairs, gripping the solid wooden railing tightly when she slid and almost fell thanks to the blood under her slippers.</p><p>Once outside her bedroom, she discarded the blood stained slippers before stepping inside and locking the door. With mild paranoia, she removed the blood stained night gown off herself as well, tossing it in the laundry basket, but when she stepped inside the small walk-in wardrobe, she couldn’t find the pajamas she wanted to put on.</p><p>A small sigh left her, remembering that they were still dirty and she hadn’t done laundry yet, a regret over not buying more proper pair of pajamas crossed her mind as she picked and put on the most decent night wear she could find, the most decent, but still not decent, the night gown barely reached the mid of her thighs, it was rather form fitting, with a moderately deep cleavage, lavender in color and half transparent on her sides.</p><p>Without giving it any further thought, she checked again that the door was locked then allowed herself to fall on the bed, burying herself under the blankets.</p><p>**</p><p>If she had to guess, an hour of twisting and turning could’ve easily passed, her earphones falling out and being repositioned multiple times while they played music solely so that they drown out any background noise. She wanted to block out any sight or sound of what had happened and what could be happening outside that room, feeling that if she didn’t, it would add to her already real chances of having a panic attack.</p><p>The gears in her mind spun faster than they ever did, the new information about her grandmother, the alleged visions of her death, the demon that could be right outside her room at that very moment, she kept mentally combing over it all in an effort to find some measure of acceptance towards it.</p><p>Laying in a fetal position on her side, she brought her hand to her face, gazing at the golden band adorned with red stones on her finger as her mind drifted back to that memory, she had to admit, she always found it a bit strange how out of all the jewelry she told her grandmother that she liked, the woman had specifically picked that one for her to have, Anneliese didn’t think it too unlikely that by that time, she had already bound the demon to it.</p><p>As for the creature itself, the very sight of him still made her cling to remnants of hopes that it was all some kind of fever nightmare; although she was a believer in the paranormal, never in a million years did she think that she would ever not only see a demon of flesh and blood, but also have a conversation with one.</p><p>Despite his words of not wanting to harm her and not to trust what she saw in pop culture and literature about creatures like him, she figured it was more than natural to still fear him, then again, she reminded herself that if he wanted her dead, he could’ve easily done so quite some time ago, so it added to her mixed feelings, confusion, and even some suspicion about potential ulterior motives.</p><p>When her thoughts returned to her grandmother, the confusion and mixed feelings only amplified, she had known the woman her entire life, she was the mother she should have had and loved each other to death, and yet, she had to admit there were things that, through an objective lens, could incite some mild suspicion, at the very least curiosity. It mainly revolved around the woman’s interest in the occult, which only grew deeper as she aged; Anneliese would always dismiss the times she’d accidentally walk in on her while doing a ritual that seemed just a tad too creepy for her taste, the times she’d hear her speak strange disturbing languages while in long trances as she appeared to be in distress, the people she involved herself with, who sometimes showed clear signs that there wasn’t something quite right about them. She remembered, but she always told herself it was nothing to worry about, especially because her grandmother would reassure her over and over that everything was okay, that they were always taking precautions to be safe, and because she loved and trusted her.</p><p>It was such a frustrating feeling, knowing that her grandmother hid such things from her. Admittedly, she knew the woman didn’t always trust her visions, she assumed she didn’t want to frighten her over what Anneliese had once dismissed as ‘another of those crazy day dreams’ in reference to different visions her grandmother had shared with her. She wished she could’ve turned back time and never said those words, she wondered if it would’ve increased the chances of actually being told about the visions regarding herself, the chances of telling her about the ring, the rather hurt expression on the woman’s face was another reason why she wished she hadn’t been so dismissive or at least had picked her words more carefully.</p><p>She squeezed her eyes shut in an effort not to cry, they were more wet than before when she opened them, a tear formed and slowly made its way towards the pillow.</p><p>It had been almost another hour and a small short crying session until she came to some measure of acceptance towards what had happened, despite being confused and conflicted about the secrets her grandmother kept from her, both those told to her by the demon and those still completely unknown, she tried to accept the fact that the woman was only trying to protect her, acting in her best judgement towards that goal.</p><p>A deep, tired exhale left her, her eyes turning towards the small space underneath the door when she thought she saw a shadow passing by, a reminder that she wasn’t alone, that despite taking the much needed time and secluding herself in her bedroom to ruminate and try to come to grips with the overwhelming recent experiences, there was still what could easily be described as a monster walking around her house.</p><p>Anneliese swallowed, and then it suddenly hit her</p><p>
  <em>Toby!</em>
</p><p>She jumped out of the bed, realizing that due to the entire waking nightmare she had completely forgotten about the cat, and in the fear that something might’ve happened to him, neglected to change clothes or put anything over her night gown, she dashed out the door, the hallway moderately illuminated by the beginning of the sunrise, yet revealing no cat in sight.</p><p>Ignoring the cracked open bathroom door as well as the squelching sound she heard from inside, she rushed downstairs, avoiding the stains of blood at the last second, then a sigh of relief left her upon finding the cat in the kitchen, munching away on food from his bowl.</p><p>Before approaching him, she glanced around for any sight of the other, much bigger creature in her house, but caught no sign of him. She pet the cat’s head and back who offered a busy meow with his mouth full, choosing to continue to eat instead of following her.</p><p>A yawn left her, which was accompanied by an almost forgotten feeling of genuine sleepiness, she carefully avoided the blood on the stairs again as she began making her way back to her bedroom with the small hopes of getting some actual decent sleep for once.</p><p>The slight but growing eagerness in her to fall asleep for several hours, something she hadn’t been able to do since the night her grandmother passed, was interrupted when she walked by the bathroom again. The sound of something wet and squishy was more clear and loud than before, that combined with the fact that she had no cat to check on anymore was more than enough to convince her to stop and investigate.</p><p>As she stepped towards the source of the sound, she already had a bad feeling about it, she approached slowly, with more hesitation upon hearing another similar noise, and soon a slight but noticeable metallic smell reached her nostrils.</p><p>Anneliese’s brows furrowed with concern, and when she stepped close enough to look through the crack in the door, the sunlight and the light from the hallway were more than enough to allow her to discern the red liquid trail on the white and cyan marble floor, leading further into the room.</p><p>Before giving the action any thought, stunned by morbid curiosity and wishing her horrific assumption to be proven wrong, she raised a slightly shaking hand and pushed the door open.</p><p>Her gaze, still on the floor, followed the blood trail deeper into the bathroom as it only widened into a large pool that covered nearly the entire surface. It lead to the opposite end of the room, to the strange feet of the demon, far from the only parts of him that were stained with fresh blood, his back turned to her, while he leaned over the bath tub and held something she couldn’t see in his arms.</p><p>As her gaze rose up, her jaw dropped down and a look of deep disgust and disbelief grew on her features, the brief sight of a bloody arm dangling from behind him threatened to bring the contents of her last meal to light again.</p><p>His head dipped down into what he held, biting into it and causing the same kind of noise she heard before, which she now fully accepted as the sounds of torn flesh wet with blood, before turning to face her and speaking in a rather casual tone</p><p>“I know it looks bad” he paused to chew, and Anneliese’s eyes were immediately drawn to the carnage he held between clawed fingers, all that was left of the man was the top half of the torso, one dangling arm and one half eaten arm “But I leaned over the bath tub, would’ve been messier if I hadn’t.”</p><p>She didn’t know what was worse, the sight of the neck leading to the lack of a head, or the bits of organs hanging below from inside the torso, but it was all more than enough to make her retch, she immediately dashed to the toilet on her left, bent over it and tried to keep her hair from getting in the way as her stomach insisted on emptying its contents</p><p>“Gross, I’m eating here.” The demon spoke in the same casual tone before taking another bite, the lower half of his face coated in blood while bits and pieces of flesh stuck to his teeth.</p><p>His remark only caused another bout of retching, regrets quickly growing in her mind over choosing to push open the cracked bathroom door, she wanted to be proven wrong on her awful assumption, all she managed to do was be proven right.</p><p>“I like the little dress, by the way.” He commented again before taking another bite from the soft tissue of the torso’s neck “Makes your hips stand out.”</p><p>Anneliese heard him, but the revolting sight and sound of torn and chewed flesh were the only things she could focus on, drawing another heave out of her.</p><p>“You really don’t know how to take a compliment.” He added, turning away as he chewed, making some slight effort to lessen the horrid scene around her.</p><p>Several coughs left her, having not eaten much in the past days, she didn’t have anything left to expel, she spat and did her best to clear her mouth before straightening up with moistened eyes and almost stepping into the large puddle of blood as she hobbled over to the sink after flushing the toilet</p><p>“What the fuck is wrong with you-“ the words slipped out of her before she realized it, she turned on the water, rinsing her mouth of the foul taste and washing her face, relieved that he didn’t react too badly, his tone only mildly irritated as he shrugged</p><p>“What? You said you don’t know how to get rid of the bodies, I said I’ll do it, so I’ve been doing it. If I told you how I was gonna do it, you would’ve freaked out even worse, almost done anyway, so relax.”</p><p>Anneliese shook her head and straightened herself, not bothering to dry her face, the cold water on her skin made her feel less nauseated, she made her way out of the bathroom, stepping over the pool of blood, and closing the door behind her.</p><p>She didn’t want to think about it, she was having a hard time suppressing the revolting scene in her mind, the more she accidentally allowed it, the smell of blood, and the sounds of flesh being stripped from bone and chewed in, the more nauseated she felt again.</p><p>In an effort to keep it all at bay, she decided she might as well do something she needed to do sooner or later anyway. Dashing to her room, she quickly changed out of her night gown and into a pair of dark blue shorts and a black tank top, then gathered together a mop and bucket, hot water from the downstairs bathroom, strong detergents, a few brushes and sponges, some sturdy rubber gloves, and began scrubbing and cleaning the floor starting with the stained portion near the front entrance door.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is all I got for now, if anyone reads this and lets me know they want more, I might write more as long as I still have some free time.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took Anneliese hours to remove every drop of blood that she could find in the house, everywhere except the bathroom, hours of scrubbing carpets and mopping up, and when that wasn’t enough, soaking up with sponges and wringing them in a bucket. The look of disgust on her face as she did that was nothing compared to when she would stumble upon the occasional piece of soft tissue, a morbid thought arising and wondering which part of the burglars’ bodies they might’ve been torn from, before she’d dismiss her curiosity with disgust.</p>
<p>Every time she had to pick up one of those, the sturdy rubber gloves didn’t feel sturdy enough anymore, but she had nothing else, and the metallic smell of the blood was beginning to be too much for her nose, she was thankful that she found a protective cloth mask to cover half of her lower face with.</p>
<p>Knowing any room fragrances would only cover the unpleasant smell and likely make it worse, she hesitantly opened all windows, praying that the wind wouldn’t blow the curtains away at a very inconvenient moment. Every time the demon passed by while she was scrubbing on all fours, her heart would skip a beat as her eyes would quickly dart to the windows, in the hopes that the curtains were still in place, the sounds of increasing activity from outside not helping her anxieties.</p>
<p>When she realized that no amount of scrubbing with various detergents nor the washing machine did the trick of removing all blood traces from certain carpets, she gave up and placed them in a bag. Along them she put the clothes of the intruders that, in her initial shock and disgust at the scene in the bathroom, she hadn’t noticed them piled up in a corner.</p>
<p>With some hesitation, she burned the materials in the back yard, praying that the foul-smelling smoke wasn’t going to attract too much attention.</p>
<p>Feeling too paranoid, she didn’t leave the fire until she made sure everything had been turned to ash, but when she stepped back inside, instead of the squeaky clean floor she had worked hours on, she had noticed the trails of foot prints. Bloody footprints.</p>
<p>Judging by their size and shape, it was painfully obvious to whom they belonged, her eyebrows furrowed into a scowl as she followed them. Only a few steps later she quickly remembered who or what she was dealing with, and thus, despite her anger at the soiling of her work, some of her ire deflated, and she made a purposeful effort to keep what was left of it in check.</p>
<p>Despite that purposeful effort, she found it difficult to restrain herself when following the bloody footprints lead to the suspect in the kitchen, leaning down as he peered into the open refrigerator.</p>
<p>She crossed her arms, not saying anything, until she saw him grab a large chunk of raw beef and bite into it.</p>
<p>“Ahem.” She pretended to clear her throat, which prompted him to turn to face her, meat hanging from his maw, big round eyes staring at her. If he didn’t look nearly as menacing, it would’ve reminded her of a child getting caught stealing a cookie from a cookie jar. “First of all, I was gonna make ground beef with that!”</p>
<p>She pointed to the raw beef between his teeth, her arm falling limp when he swung his head and unclenched it from his jaws, landing it back inside the fridge</p>
<p>“Ugh, yeah that’s totally sanitary! I’ll just clean the demon drool off of it.” Her tired fingers briefly squeezed the bridge of her nose “Secondly, didn’t you <em>just</em> eat like-“ she paused, realizing her voice was growing too loud out of frustration, and out of anxiety that someone walking by in the street might hear, she lowered her voice considerably “Didn’t you just eat like, three freakin people? I-I still can’t believe you did that but Christ, how much do you eat?”</p>
<p>At that, a realization seemed to hit him, his eyes rolling to a corner before he pushed the fridge doors closed</p>
<p>“You’re right, I need to watch my figure.”</p>
<p>Anneliese could’ve imagined him reacting in a number of ways, but definitely not placing his hands behind his neck and flexing, accentuating every already well defined muscle in his arms and torso. Almost reflexively, she looked away and shook her head.</p>
<p>“Quit it, a-anyway, most importantly, <em>thirdly</em>, you’re ruining my hard work!” her train of thought was interrupted by the realization that she felt warmth in her cheeks, making her involuntarily pause. She caught herself soon enough, pointing to the floor, to the spots of blood shaped like the bottom of his feet, leading back up the stairs to the yet unclean bathroom “Do you <em>mind</em> going back upstairs and running some water over your feet?”</p>
<p>Her aggressive request seemed to make him shrink back, bringing his hands to his chest, slightly hunching over and narrowing his eyes at her as he took a step to the side</p>
<p>“The bathroom is dirty!” he spat out the last word, and Anneliese had to turn away, her eyes widening with outraged disbelief, having to yet again make an effort to keep her temper in check as she spoke between gritted teeth</p>
<p>“Gee, I wonder whose fault that is! It wasn’t me who ate their corpses!” she gestured vaguely in the direction of the upstairs bathroom, one arm resting on her hip</p>
<p>“But it <em>was</em> you who couldn’t get rid of them.” he cocked his head to the side and what little tissue there was around his teeth stretched to the corners of his mouth, widening his fanged smirk at her mockingly “Maybe that was the night granny had visions of, the night you’d meet your demise.”</p>
<p>Anneliese’s ire was instantly deflated by those words almost entirely, the look of outrage on her features replaced by one of surprise and concern, the arm on her hip dropping to her side</p>
<p>“Maybe I should’ve let them do it.” He continued, placing a hand on his chin in a faux thoughtful gesture as he stepped towards the doorway “Maybe I should’ve let them fuck yo-…” Anneliese blinked when he cut himself off, his eyes narrowing, he shook his head, his voice deepening, acquiring an even more raspy quality, she could feel its vibration from across the room “No, no.. Can’t <em>have</em> that!”</p>
<p>His tail hit against the wall hard, making the dishes on the counter clink from the impact and Anneliese jump, she swallowed, realizing that he had managed to make himself mad with his own words.</p>
<p>The next sound she heard, however, made her pause. As he stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room, his horns smacked against the top of the doorway, causing a painfully familiar dull thud.</p>
<p>Anneliese’s eyes widened with understanding, she said nothing as she watched him walk over to the sofa and trying to make himself fit comfortably lying down, choosing to rest one leg over the arm rest and the other on the back rest, keeping both dirty feet off of the floor.</p>
<p>With some hesitation, she walked up to him, not feeling at ease seeing that his arm was over his eyes, preventing her from getting what small indicators of his mood she could get in the first place.</p>
<p>She licked her dry lips and threw a glance at the stairs, considering just going to clean the bathroom and coming back later when he was in a good mood again, but her curiosity wouldn’t allow her. Dismissing the frightful thought of how easily he could make himself angry, and the bizarre particular words that seemed to anger him, she stepped into view near his feet.</p>
<p>“Um.. How long have you been.. around?” she knew the question sounded vague, but hoped he would understand.</p>
<p>“My visits to this realm increased gradually in the past years.” She was relieved at both the fact that he already knew what she meant with her question, and that he sounded more calm, despite his still extra hoarse voice and serious tone “Especially in the past months, as Joyce realized she was going to die soon.”</p>
<p>A deep breath left Anneliese, his mention of the word <em>realm</em> rising more questions in her mind, but the reminder of her grandmother’s death and her business with the demon preoccupied her more.</p>
<p>“I.. see. I heard you in the house before, in the past days.. Never saw you though, only shadows in the corner of my eye..” she continued when he said nothing, only lightly flicked his tail “Did you know my grandmother well? Did you.. talk about a lot of stuff?”</p>
<p>The sound he made in response unnerved her, it could have been a thoughtful hum with a gravelly element about it, or it could have been a growl, she couldn’t tell.</p>
<p>After taking a couple steps back, she paused upon hearing his voice, seemingly in a normal tone again “Don’t you think there’s a better time for these questions?”</p>
<p>Anneliese glanced at the blood on her clothes, her gloves, the stains on the floor and remembered the mess in the bathroom, still waiting for her. A brief chuckle left her, mostly out of nervousness and relief</p>
<p>“You’re right, got some work left to do..”</p>
<p>Moments after she began backing away, his voice made her stop again</p>
<p>“Where you going then?” he almost shouted, prompting her to look back “Best start right here, no?”</p>
<p>Her brows furrowed and her jaw dropped upon seeing him clench the taloned toes of his blood stained feet at her a few times, the suggestion was clear, and it made her voice rise again</p>
<p>“Are you serious?! I’m not going to clean your bloody feet!” she crossed her arms to her chest, dirtying her tank top further</p>
<p>“Then I’m going to get up and keep making a mess!” he partially sat up, leaning on his elbows and wiggled his feet at her again</p>
<p>Anneliese wanted so much to just run up the stairs and clean the bathroom, but she was so tired and sick of removing the blood stains from her house for the past hours, she didn’t want any more. At the same time, she found the idea beyond bizarre and it would hurt some part of her pride.</p>
<p>Her eyes darted to the cleaning products she left in the kitchen, then to the creature on her sofa whose smirk she could’ve sworn looked wider than usual. Some extra awareness came to her mind, allowing her to acknowledge how surreal the entire situation was.</p>
<p>
  <em>Are you fucking kidding me?! First I get home invaded, then some actual monster murders the burglars, eats their corpses, makes a mess of my house, and now I have to clean the blood off his freakin feet?! Is this really not some kind of fever dream I’ve been trapped-</em>
</p>
<p>A light flick of his tail on her hip made her jump and snap out of her thoughts</p>
<p>“You were zoning out.”</p>
<p>She turned to face the stairs, but quickly stopped when he continued “Fine, more work for you.”</p>
<p>Rushing to the sofa, almost on instinct she grabbed his foot by the ankle right as he was about to place it on the pristine floor</p>
<p>“Fine! Christ, fine, I’ll.. just don’t get up!”</p>
<p>Defeated, she hurried to the cleaning tools in the kitchen and brought them over to the living room. She wanted to smack something, preferably him, when he shoved his blood stained foot close to her face.</p>
<p>
  <em>Wipe that shit-eating grin off your face.. Or at least try.</em>
</p>
<p>With a sigh, she dipped the sponge in soapy water and rubbed it against the leathery skin of the underside of the creature’s inhuman foot, for barely a couple of seconds, as he started wiggling it and pulling it back while he chuckled</p>
<p>“What, are you kidding me, are you.. <em>ticklish</em>?!” she grabbed his ankle and pulled it back towards her, she was so over it, she just wanted to finish cleaning the mess everywhere “Quit it!”</p>
<p>Turning her back to him, she grabbed a firm hold of his foot under her arm and cleaned the blood off, ignoring his admittedly light protests and suppressed laughter. A thought crossed her mind that he could’ve been laughing at something else.</p>
<p>
  <em>Either demons are ticklish or he thinks making me do this is real freakin funny.</em>
</p>
<p>It was followed by the much more important realization of how those sharp talons could slice her back open with ease, or at the very least, that other leg could land her a kick that could send her flying into the closest wall ahead. She shook her head, reminding herself and trying to convince herself that it wouldn’t happen.</p>
<p>As she was partly focused on cleaning his other foot, and partly lost in thoughts, she was somewhat startled to suddenly hear his voice, even more so his words</p>
<p>“Didn’t know grams well, didn’t speak much, apart from the essentials.. For the.. most part.”</p>
<p>Anneliese’s brows furrowed lightly “Is that so? I.. know it may not be any of my business, but.. clearly you did business with her, and now I know why she did it, but..” she swallowed, wanting to satisfy her curiosity, but at the same time afraid of overstepping any boundaries, her hesitant question following an uncomfortable pause “Why did <em>you</em> do it? Do you guys like.. <em>have</em> to establish and fulfill these types of deals?”</p>
<p>She threw a reluctant glance over her shoulder when she heard and almost felt the low vibration of the deep raspy humming emerging from his chest, somewhat relieved to see he wasn’t looking at her, his neck craned back over the arm rest of the sofa.</p>
<p>“Didn’t have to, needed to.”</p>
<p>Anneliese raised a questioning eyebrow, and made an effort to not turn away when he raised his head, eyes narrowed away from her</p>
<p>“<em>Karma.</em>” His jaw barely moved when he uttered the word, she could recognize the venom in his voice at it.</p>
<p>The answer he had to give to her question seemed to displease him, she finished up removing the blood from his feet and took a step back, threading more carefully</p>
<p>“Oh? I didn’t know even demons had to worry about karma, I assumed once you get to that lev-.. uh, I thought that demons are more or less free to do whatever they want?”</p>
<p>He huffed “Doesn’t work like that.”</p>
<p>Anneliese nodded and took a step back, now she wanted even more to just go upstairs and finish the cleanup, then paused upon feeling something snake around her calf. She jumped at the sight of his tail, its tip coiling up to her knee and slowly slithering higher, but felt frozen by the sound of his voice and the words it spoke, every long drawn vowel resembling a guttural laugh that had a noticeable, eerie echo</p>
<p>“I did some bad, b-a-a-a-a-d things.” The way he very smoothly turned his head and aimed his piercing red eyes at her only added to her discomfort</p>
<p>When the tip of the appendage began snaking underneath her relatively loose shorts through the pant leg, she quickly snapped out of it and almost fell over as she stumbled backwards, unwrapping the tail from around her leg in the process</p>
<p>“I-I see, it’s cool, don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, I shouldn’t be nosy, heh.” She tried not to stumble over her words as well while she subtly distanced herself</p>
<p>“Can’t let karma get too bad, otherwise, mortal or not, your life’s gonna be as if you fucked a black cat under a ladder while breaking mirrors on Friday the thirteen.”</p>
<p>Anneliese laughed more out of anxiety, taking a few steps back towards the stairs, before she was once again made to halt</p>
<p>“Now where do you think you’re going?”</p>
<p>She ignored the tail flicking in her direction, thankful that she was out of its reach “Uh, still have to clean the bathroom, after I’m done I’ll come back to clean the foot prints and I’ll be finally done.”</p>
<p>“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he cocked his head at her and she was genuinely confused, she thought about it, but couldn’t think of what she might be missing. That was, until he craned his neck back and puffed his chest, Anneliese stared at him, then squinted, and she could discern the dried dark red blood on his charcoal skin, staining it from near his jaw all the way down to his abdomen, the realization almost making her drop the sponge from her hand.</p>
<p>“O-oh no, absolutely not, I’m cleaning the bathroom then you can go there and clean yourself!”</p>
<p>She didn’t wait for an answer, she stomped upstairs, annoyed by his laughter, but also relieved that he didn’t insist.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>By the time Anneliese finished cleaning the bathroom and the bloody foot prints, the sun was growing closer to its setting point and she lost count of the amount of times her stomach’s growling drew her attention.</p>
<p>With a deep exhale of content, she rinsed the rubber gloves with water before tossing them in the washing machine, and stood in the doorway of the pristine white bathroom, a smile creeping up on her lips as she glanced around with satisfaction. The smile, however, dropped somewhat at the absurdity of the thought that followed, that part of the reason why she cleaned the bathroom was so that a demon could clean the dried blood off of himself after eating the dead bodies of home intruders.</p>
<p>She shook her head, dismissing the visceral memory and suppressing a shudder. Taking a few moments to rest her tired feet, she sat on the closed toilet lid, the entire situation still seemed so surreal, but nothing she did woke her up from what she wished was only a bizarre dream, so she could only accept it as reality.</p>
<p>Her eyes turned to the key in the lock, she had to take a shower herself, but even if she locked the door, she still didn’t feel completely comfortable. After meandering about in the bathroom for a short while, occasionally checking and making sure there was no drop of blood left anywhere, she sighed and gave up, door locked or not, demons in the house or not, she still had to clean herself and be done with this dirty day.</p>
<p>On the way back to the bathroom with clean towels, she suppressed another shudder for different reasons when she recalled the tail coiled around her leg and the way it nearly snuck inside her shorts.</p>
<p>
  <em>What the hell was that all about? Was he trying to amuse himself again by making me uncomfortable?</em>
</p>
<p>She accidentally closed the door a little too hard before locking it and double checking that it wasn’t going to budge. At least in response to her efforts, she suspected he could make his way inside if he really wanted, but dismissed the distressing idea and hesitantly took her clothes off, tossing them in the washing machine and making a mental note to burn them if the stains would refuse to come out of them.</p>
<p>Being able to take a shower in peace was even more relaxing than she anticipated, admittedly, her eyes did dart to the door once in a while, and she occasionally lowered the water pressure when she thought she heard a noise, but she was more than relieved to clean the grime off herself. The sight of blood in the water spooked her for a moment, until she remembered that it wasn’t hers.</p>
<p>However, the reminder brought with it questions and realizations that, during the stress and busyness of cleaning the house thoroughly before someone tried to visit, remained suppressed in the back of her mind.</p>
<p>
  <em>Three people died in my house this morning…</em>
</p>
<p>The thought made her hand holding the soapy loofah pause the scrubbing of her skin, she was already well aware of that fact, since she had been working on removing the stains of their bodily remains for the past hours, but only now did it truly begin to sink in.</p>
<p>Slowly, she raised her hands to her head and squeezed her hair, her gaze following the trace amounts of blood that flowed out, circling the drain before disappearing down with the water.</p>
<p>
  <em>Did they have families?</em>
</p>
<p>The question made her face scrunch up with sadness, they were committing a crime and they likely were going to hurt her, but as far as she was concerned, they didn’t deserve to die, and imagining their families never getting to see them again was too much to handle, especially so soon after the death of her grandmother.</p>
<p>Slightly hunching over, she allowed the water to flow down her back as she wrapped her arms around herself and made an effort to not burst into sobs at the mix of emotions storming inside her, the pleasant memories of her grandmother, the last weeks spent with her, the funeral, the things the burglars could have done to her if the creature hadn’t interfered, what he did to them, the possibility of them having families who will never see them again.</p>
<p>A few tears escaped that quickly mixed with the water, but she managed to keep herself together.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Stepping into the kitchen in a white bath robe ending mid-thigh, she was somewhat relieved to find herself alone; she made sure there was cat food in Toby’s bowl, then prepared dinner for herself.</p>
<p>The silence as she ate was unpleasant, it made it even harder for her to keep the thoughts and memories she’d been struggling with in the shower at bay. With some difficulty, she rose on tired legs and grabbed the remote from the countertop, turning on the television, letting it play any random program, anything that would offer some distraction while she ate.</p>
<p>When she made her way back to her bedroom, she was initially hesitant to open the door, but then released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding upon stepping inside and seeing the room empty. She did not want any more surprises, she was exhausted, physically and especially emotionally, and only wanted to sink into deep restful sleep for many hours.</p>
<p>A glance at her phone revealed a few unread messages, but she couldn’t bring herself to formulate replies, not only due to her tiredness. She dropped the phone on the bed, which was followed by her body, and only after she groggily half-covered herself with the blanket did she realize she still only had the bath robe on with nothing underneath.</p>
<p>The thought of a certain someone walking in in the middle of the night rushed to her mind and she quickly stopped the mental image with an involuntary frown and light shudder. At the same time, she was exhausted, her muscles and knees ached from the hours she spent on all fours scrubbing floors and carpets, getting up seemed like a herculean task.</p>
<p>If she wasn’t already half asleep with her eyes closed, her frown would’ve deepened into a scowl, she hated this, another side effect of the situation she found herself in was how she had to guard herself from something that looked like it belonged in a nightmare, and in her own house, of all things, the house that had always kept her safe.</p>
<p>Mumbling cusses of unfairness under her breath, she made the seemingly colossal effort of standing up, nearly tripping on the way to the door, locking it, then collapsing back into bed and passing out.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>It was too few hours later that several knocks, or rather heavy thuds, against the door disturbed her sleep. At first, her exhausted mind integrated the noises into her dreams, only when they wouldn’t stop did they finally wake her up. Anneliese jolted reflexively upon realizing the sound was real, and coming from nearby, the traumatic event of the burglary and its aftermath still almost completely fresh in her mind, making her jump with alarm and suppressed panic.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, hearing the demonic voice behind the door alleviated her worries, although his words confused her already very groggy mind</p>
<p>“Come on, I don’t wanna wait hours to settle this.”</p>
<p>Unable to make much sense of what she heard, she even considered she might actually still be dreaming as she slowly got up and made her way to the door. After cracking it open, she suppressed a jolt at the sight of the dark entity towering in front of her. Both his hands were behind his back, craning his neck to the side to knock against the door with his horn again, but making no noise as Anneliese opened it wider.</p>
<p>“Oh.” He started, and she waited for the reason why he had woken her during what appeared to be the middle of the night, but received nothing else. From the few glances she could steal between very heavy eyelids, his eyes seemed shifty, and he took a step back, his hands remaining behind him.</p>
<p>Anneliese couldn’t help the irritated frown forming on her face, she was beyond exhausted, she was woken up well before she could get a proper rest, and the monster that disturbed her sleep was standing in front of her sheepishly, almost resembling a nervous child, hesitant to tell her the reason why he was there.</p>
<p>“<em>Well?</em>” the tone of annoyance in her voice was barely audible over her grogginess “What did you wake me up at this hour for? It’s not even dawn.”</p>
<p>“Well…” he repeated, still reluctant to continue, but when a brief yet deep growl suddenly left his chest, it made Anneliese jump and knocked a considerably chunk of the grogginess out of her, she reflexively took a small, subtle step back and stopped closing her tired eyes, instead keeping them on him.</p>
<p>Unbeknownst to her, he was only annoyed at himself and the situation that could arise due to his actions.</p>
<p>“Figure me this” he finally started in a forceful tone “On a scale from mildly miffed to excessively enraged, where would you place yourself once greeted with the loss of an oh-so-precious antique that granny left behind?”</p>
<p>Anneliese blinked several times, attempting to clear away more of her grogginess and make sense of his words or where he was attempting to go with this.</p>
<p>“…What?” was all she could muster to say from the mix of exhaustion, fear and confusion she was swimming in.</p>
<p>Then, he brought his hands in front of him, holding a pile of white porcelain shards with floral designs, a few of them slipping between his fingers and falling on the floor, shattering into smaller pieces, and it became all too clear what he had done.</p>
<p>Her eyes closed again with both exhaustion and exasperation, she tried to silence the heavy sigh that left her</p>
<p>“It’s fine…” she made an effort to speak in a neutral tone between her teeth</p>
<p>“<em>Lies</em>.” He leaned forward, making her take another small step back and dropping a few more shards on the ground in the process</p>
<p>Anneliese raised a hand in front of her and attempted to speak clearly and defuse any potential tension, including her own irritation at what he had done</p>
<p>“Okay, okay, it’s not fine, but listen, what’s done is done, all I can say is be more careful from now on, alright? I don’t know how you managed to break it but just leave the shards in the kitchen, I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”</p>
<p>She attempted to close the door, but he stepped forward</p>
<p>“I was trying to reach one of the books on the top shelf, the vase was-“</p>
<p>Anneliese nodded and interjected, mostly trying to shut him up and end it so she could go back to bed</p>
<p>“Okay, tomorrow tell me what books you want and I’ll get them for you with the ladder so no more accidents will happen, don’t worry about it anymore.”</p>
<p>A thoughtful gravelly hum went through the entity’s chest before he nodded and to her relief, backed away</p>
<p>“I’m selectively impatient, and I had to clear the air, you see, it’s best to not leave these kinds of things fester,-“</p>
<p>She nodded and began closing the door, but then paused and spoke up on a whim without thinking</p>
<p>“Wait a minute, were you actually kinda nervous about telling me what you did? You looked a tad.. apprehensive?” her raised eyebrow turned into a light frown at his response, a brief low chuckle left him</p>
<p>“Don’t flatter yourself.”</p>
<p>Anneliese suppressed the slight sense of danger that emanated from his voice and the way his eyes narrowed, as well as the less intense annoyance his words provoked</p>
<p>“Like I said, gotta clear the air on this kind of stuff fast-“ she attempted to close the door again, only to be stopped yet again “Wait, trust me, I know from experience, listen, you gotta sort things out with people you have to live with-“ she nodded vaguely and tried to make it as obvious as possible without speaking that she needed to go back to bed, but he continued “Do you have any idea how miserable it is to have to spend decades with some mortal bastard when you hate each other? No no, let me tell you a story, you have to know why this is important! A few hundred years ago I was stuck with this guy in this shitty hut in the middle of nowhere village with his shitty kids and whore of a wife, and trust me when I say it was the most fucking <em>wretched</em> three decades of my tragic existence, the guy absolutely would <em>not</em> stop bitching-“</p>
<p>It took everything in Anneliese to suppress a groan and not slam the door in his face where he stood as he continued babbling, she leaned against the door, not knowing how else to indicate that she very much needed to go back to bed, since whenever she tried to speak up he would shush her and continue what began to sound more like a rant disguised as a story.</p>
<p>When she eventually crouched down against the door and rested her head on her arm, he seemed to have finally gotten the idea</p>
<p>“And he blamed <em>me </em>for both his wife whoring around the village <em>and </em>the wolf that mauled his fifth youngest brat, can you believ- …Oh, sleep?”</p>
<p>Anneliese groaned loudly and mumbled a barely conscious “Yeah, dammit”</p>
<p>“Hey, could’ve said so earlier.” She was too tired to get more than a little frustrated at his words “Sweet dreams, I’ll keep an eye out for bad guys.”</p>
<p>Her half-asleep mind managed to comment something about how he had no room to talk about bad guys, but as she attempted to stand up, her face impacted with the long thick tail that swung when he turned around and stepped away, making her fall back on her behind.</p>
<p>A weak growl of annoyance left her, she slammed the door closed with her leg then clumsily got up and threw herself onto the bed, passing out before even adjusting her disheveled bath robe.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>For once, Anneliese woke up feeling fully rested, both physically and mentally. The sun of the late morning shone through the thin drapes, warmly caressing her skin and drawing a smile out of her as she stretched. The smile, however, quickly died down and she opened her eyes as she remembered everything. It was so much better seconds before when all she knew was awakening on a pleasant warm morning, it was accompanied by that feeling of before, of when everything was normal, and then it got shattered by the reality she found herself in.</p>
<p>She did her best to dismiss it, dismiss the negative feelings, although she couldn’t ignore a sense of paranoia, so she went to the bathroom before she put on a pair of cream shorts and a white tank top.</p>
<p>Feeling more thirsty than hungry, she made her way towards the kitchen, but as soon as she descended the stairs, she stopped and stared into the living room.</p>
<p>The giant black horned figure paced back and forth near the television that was on a children’s live-action show. He seemed frustrated, even irate, as he kept glancing around suspiciously, looking behind the television, behind the sofa and armchairs, even up in the air, in the corners of the room where she couldn’t see anything. Anneliese raised a curious eyebrow as she watched him then stop and stand silent, trying to listen, or rather, sense something, as his tail flicked once in a while.</p>
<p>She kept her distance as she walked towards the kitchen and stopped in the doorway between it and the living room</p>
<p>“What have you done this time?..”</p>
<p>She flinched when he abruptly turned, she was pretty sure he saw her, she doubted she startled him, to say nothing of sensed her with whatever supernatural abilities she suspected he had.</p>
<p>“Not me! One of those little shits around here must’ve did this, or the old lady, must’ve made this infernal thing light up!”</p>
<p>Anneliese frowned with some concern, her grandmother had mentioned spirits of at least one child and an elderly woman, she didn’t know if they were permanent ‘residents’ in her house, she watched him go quiet again, red piercing eyes squinting as he glanced around before speaking through his teeth with irritation</p>
<p>“But they’re not here! They haven’t been since the hours these agonizing images have been flashing!” He gestured to the television and started pacing back and forth in front of it again. Anneliese couldn’t help feeling somewhat uncomfortable “How did they do this? They’re nowhere close, how can some snotty brat or old hag have such interference reach?! Did they somehow combine powers to make this happen? Activate these images from a mile away to flash them in my face, torture me, knowing I can’t leave? They must not like me, no, I felt they weren’t thrilled to have another entity here, especially one so much more powerful than them, mind you, but I didn’t expect them to go to such petty yet infuriating lengths to... to...”</p>
<p>A soft exhale left Anneliese upon noticing a small black rectangular object on the floor next to an armchair</p>
<p>“Did you drop the remote?..”</p>
<p>The demon stopped talking and stroking his chin and snapped to face her with what she would guess was a confused look on his face</p>
<p>“The <em>what</em>?”</p>
<p>She stepped closer and picked up the remote, aimed it at the television, pressed a button, and the device turned off.</p>
<p>“Red button make plastic thin box go dark.” She indicated to said red button with her finger on the remote control, then immediately regretted the purposefully dumb tone of voice and choice of words she picked.</p>
<p>She was used to joking that way with her friends when they had some very easy problem with technology, but remembered too late that it might not be the best approach with a frustrated eight foot tall demon when his eyes narrowed and a deep guttural growl seemed to tremble the entire room.</p>
<p>Her heart picked up the pace as she dropped the remote on the armchair and took some steps back towards the kitchen, she spoke up in an attempt to ease the tension, anxiety noticeable in her voice</p>
<p>“Oh, you’re not familiar with technology, that’s fine, really, heh, I don’t know why I expected you to be, that was weird of me.. weird and wrong of me, sor-“</p>
<p>“Four fucking hours!” he suddenly snapped, crossing his arms grumpily “Four hours of having to withstand the giggles and squealing of <em>children</em> from that box! Do you know how good my hearing is? It was inescapable!”</p>
<p>It then hit Anneliese that he wasn’t so much upset with her as he was frustrated and even embarrassed with himself.</p>
<p>She forced a half smile, somewhat relieved that he wasn’t focused on her “Y-yeah, damn, that sucks, at least from now on you know what to do.. Or if something else turns on without you wanting it to, just pull it out of the power outlet, alright? The black cable that goes into the wall, pull it out, <em>gently</em>.. and it should solve the problem.”</p>
<p>She flinched when a sudden deep exhale rose from his chest, sounding more like something a large animal would make, but she was more relieved when he appeared calmer after it. But she still stepped away from him, to the refrigerator, when he walked towards the kitchen.</p>
<p>Despite not being completely at ease yet, she had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing when he bumped his horns on the top of the doorway, having to bend his neck in a comedic fashion to enter, as if he had failed a game of limbo, although it barely seemed to register to him.</p>
<p>Pretending not to notice, she kept her gaze inside the refrigerator and was mildly surprised to see no meat or any kind of food had gone supposedly missing.</p>
<p>“Uhm, are you hungry? Do you want anything?” she threw a glance over her shoulder to see him standing a comfortable distance behind her, arms still crossed over his chest, but could’ve sworn she noticed his eyes shift from her back to away from her in a split second.</p>
<p>At first, he said nothing, only shifted his weight from one leg to the other, swinging his tail along with it. For the couple of seconds that she watched, there was something about that entire picture; she didn’t know if it was the fact that he was nearly nude and so brightly visible in both sunlight and artificial light, or the way every muscle was so defined and clearly shifting under his inky black skin when he moved, or the way his large clawed hand scraped over his bulging bicep. Or perhaps some combination, or even all of those, that made her notice the increased heat in both her nether regions and her cheeks.</p>
<p>Immediately, she mentally slapped herself.</p>
<p>
  <em>Did you just- no, <strong>no</strong>, what the <strong>hell</strong> is wrong with you, no, that did not just happen.</em>
</p>
<p>She almost jumped when he spoke up</p>
<p>“Would you prefer me to eat animals?”</p>
<p>“Instead of humans??” she immediately questioned, throwing him a disturbed glance over her shoulder before turning to search through the refrigerator, he paused for a moment</p>
<p>“…Instead of your food.”</p>
<p>Anneliese paused as well, feeling rather dumb.</p>
<p>“Oh… Y-yes, well, I don’t really mind, you could.. do both, I guess.. Just don’t eat raw ingredients that I plan to cook with again, wait until I actually cook something, then you can eat.”</p>
<p>After placing some ingredients for breakfast on the table, she returned to the refrigerator, but once she turned around again, she suddenly found herself alone in the room. Stepping outside of the kitchen and looking around revealed nobody in sight, she wondered how a creature so large could move so silently and quickly, but also exhaled a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding.</p>
<p>**</p>
<p>Anneliese ate in silence until that silence became too uncomfortable, allowing her too much mental space for unpleasant thoughts and concerns, so she turned on the suspended television in the corner, paying half attention to the program displayed while she ate.</p>
<p>To her surprise, she was still alone after she was done eating, she briefly wondered where he could be, until the mental image of him chewing through a deer corpse crossed her mind, and she dismissed it with disgust. However, she couldn’t help some concern, despite the forest being not too far away from her house.</p>
<p>
  <em>Wait a second.. what was that he said, about not being able to go far?.. Oh.. Oh, no..</em>
</p>
<p>Then the horrifying thought crossed her mind that he might be in the neighborhood, slaughtering people’s pets to eat them, she instinctively began rushing to the door, but then abruptly stopped in her tracks.</p>
<p><em>No, wait, it’s broad daylight, he can’t be out there, he’d get seen immediately.. And what the hell can I do anyway? </em>She briefly pulled the curtains to see people strolling down the sidewalk past her fence. <em>Be like, excuse me sir and madam, have you happened to glance upon an eight foot tall horned creature from hell feasting on your neighbor’s dog?</em></p>
<p>She shook her head at the mental image as she made her way upstairs and made a mental note to talk to him about that matter.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lounging on the sofa with the laptop on her abdomen, a yawn left her, prompting her to check the time. It had been over two hours since she began studying, and even longer since she had last seen her involuntary housemate, she couldn’t help a feeling of concern, albeit she wasn’t sure for whom or what it was.</p>
<p>As she tapped a few keys on the laptop, the sight of the ring on her finger caught her eye. She wasn’t even aware she was frowning at it, her expression morphing into an amalgamation of sadness, worry, and confusion due to the thoughts of her grandmother and what she had done flooding back. It went on for longer than she would’ve consciously allowed, until she shook her head and the distressing thoughts away, sitting up on the sofa and placing the laptop next to her as she rested her head in her hand, gently rubbing the side of her forehead.</p>
<p><em>How in the world am I supposed to go back to normal life after all this… All this…</em> Although she reflexively wanted to continue with bad words, a part of her held her back, telling her that it would be disrespectful to her grandmother, that she had done it all to protect her, that she couldn’t start thinking that way about her.</p>
<p>Swallowing made her realize how dry her mouth had gotten, but she felt too preoccupied with her emotions to even stand up and get a drink.</p>
<p>Then, she was given a much more solid reason not to move, even though it was against her will. It was normal for the hardwood floor to slightly creak in that one spot, but that was only when someone stepped on it, and she was supposed to be home alone.</p>
<p>Instantly, images from the night of the home invasion flashed through her mind, making her hairs stand up with fright and anxiety, so much so that she couldn’t bring herself to look over her shoulder, let alone get up and run or call for help if it was necessary.</p>
<p>As seconds passed, her frozen expression began morphing into confusion and suspicion upon hearing what sounded like footsteps, however, very heavy footsteps, gradually removing the possibility of them sourcing from a human being.</p>
<p>With a shaky motion, she forced herself to look over in the direction of the footfalls, then it felt like she could breathe again, she exhaled deeply and felt her tense muscles suddenly relax at the sight of the horned entity casually walking into the living room, but then stopping when she jumped out of her seat</p>
<p>“Gah, you bastard! Do you have any idea how scared I was!? You just vanished out of nowhere then I hear the floorboards creak and footsteps a-and I thought there were people in the house again! Don’t you freakin... ever...”</p>
<p>Anneliese’s words died down as the realization of what she was doing began sinking in, of her nearly yelling at the creature towering in front of her with a rather accusatory tone and not so kind words. His puzzled narrowed crimson eyes and slight head tilt helped to snap her out of it, leaving behind dead silence in which she began feeling a mixture of awkward and tense, somewhat scared of his reaction to her little outburst.</p>
<p>“What did I do now?”</p>
<p>She was just a tad relieved that at least he didn’t sound angry, only confused, she gestured with her hands in front of her as she sat back down</p>
<p>“Nothing.. Nothing, I’m sorry, I’m just..” her eyes shifted between the exit door and the windows covered by drapes and she swallowed “I guess I’m still on edge after that.. particular damned night.”</p>
<p>More relief came to her upon hearing his regular tone of voice, despite the fact that she did not expect the words that came with it</p>
<p>“You really think I’m going to allow anything bad to happen to you? That’s cute.”</p>
<p>She blinked with genuine confusion, being taken off guard, thoroughly unsure how to even begin to react or answer to that.</p>
<p>Then she remembered her mental note, and she jumped at the chance to change the topic</p>
<p>“Oh, by the way!” she placed her laptop back in her lap, not looking up when he sat across from her in the same recamier he lounged on before “I.. obviously can’t tell you what to do, but me and everyone in the neighborhood would really, <em>really</em> appreciate if none of their beloved pets.. you know, went missing?”</p>
<p>Anneliese hoped that he would understand what she meant without her having to explain why slaughtering people’s pets and eating them was bad. Judging by the way he crossed his arms over his chest, he caught her drift</p>
<p>“I didn’t kill anything!” He sounded almost offended, but she frowned at the way she could’ve sworn his mannerisms and tone of voice resembled less of an angered creature from fiery depths and more of a child being upset at unfair scolding, even his facial expression struggled to form a pout.</p>
<p>“Alright, alright.” She briefly rose a hand in front of her in an unnecessary defensive gesture “Just wanted to be clear on that..” her words were followed by rather awkward silence, at least as far as she was concerned.</p>
<p>The tapping of keys on her laptop was too loud in the dead silence, only interrupted by the steady ticking of the grandfather clock, and when she would sneakily look up from the device, she’d notice he kept trying to make himself comfortably lie down on the recamier again. Her eyes narrowed upon glancing at the sharp black claws touching the soft material too much for her liking, but she didn’t feel comfortable enough to bring it up, she had to remain content with hoping he wasn’t going to scratch or cut it.</p>
<p>“So uhm.. what do you want to eat, do you wanna sneak into the woods and catch some deer or something?” Anneliese was surprised when she received what seemed to be a rather exasperated look in return</p>
<p>“Will you shut up about food already? I don’t need to eat nearly as often as you do.”</p>
<p>She blinked in surprise “Oh? Well fine, I was just..” she continued the last words under her breath, more to herself “Looking out for you, I guess.”</p>
<p>“Or food at all, really. I can just switch to devouring souls.” Despite those words sounding as if they were spoken with a smirk and amused tone, Anneliese wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t serious, she couldn’t help the disturbed look she gave him, which was followed by a half-suppressed chilling guttural laugh.</p>
<p>Feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, she waited quite a few seconds before speaking, both to fully process that possibility and what it would entail, and to gather some courage to speak up</p>
<p>“Y-you’re joking right? I’m waiting for you to say you’re not being serious.”</p>
<p>The creature pulled his jaw open with a finger between razor sharp teeth as he glanced up to the side in a supposedly thoughtful gesture</p>
<p>“Of course I am!” his words immediately made Anneliese exhale a breath of tension and fear she wasn’t aware she’d been holding, until she heard him mumble “I think..” to himself.</p>
<p>Her mouth began feeling too dry now, she took a moment to collect herself before standing up and heading to the kitchen.</p>
<p>When she returned, it was with two cones of ice cream, one held at a full arm’s length as she hesitantly approached the demon. To her surprise, as she stepped closer, he physically backed away, until he scooted to the other end of the recamier, as far as he could from the ice cream pointed at him.</p>
<p>“What the hell are you doing, you’re acting like I’m coming at you with a cross or something! Take it, it’s good, maybe you’ll like it enough that you won’t feel the need to eat anyone’s soul or whatever.”</p>
<p>Anneliese waved the ice cream cone closer, only for him to raise an arm and even foot in defense.</p>
<p>“It smells disgusting!” he snapped back and she didn’t believe him, there was no way the ice cream she bought less than a week before had gone bad in the freezer, she smelled it to be sure.</p>
<p>“It smells delicious, it’s vanilla and strawberry!” she attempted to put the ice cream in his hand, but he quickly pushed her away with his foot after bending his toes as best he could to avoid the claws doing her any damage</p>
<p>“Hey!” Anneliese’s protest was interrupted by his own</p>
<p>“Vanilla and strawberry, exactly, disgusting!”</p>
<p>A lighthearted frown grew on her face, she wanted to cross her arms at him saying such crazy things about the delicious ice cream, but couldn’t due to the items in her hands. Which made her realize she could try something else, and on further thought, it made sense to her that a creature like him might not be a fan of fruit, be it in ice cream form or not.</p>
<p>“Okay, fine, how about this one then? Vanilla and chocolate.” She approached him with the other ice cream, and this time he didn’t recoil as much.</p>
<p>The flesh around where a nose would be on his face crinkled a couple times, and very hesitantly, he grasped the cone with two fingers, digging his claws into its sides.</p>
<p>Anneliese quickly backed away and returned to her sofa, she buttoned the laptop a few times, shifting her gaze between the screen and the creature on the recamier. She took a lick and a bite of her own ice cream, amused at the sight of him glancing at his and sniffing it as if he was suspicious of its intentions.</p>
<p>“I have never eaten something like this. What if it kills me?”</p>
<p>“Then I’ll be in trouble.”</p>
<p>He mentally agreed, until she continued “Like where the hell will I hide your body, I can’t get rid of bodies the way you can.”</p>
<p>The smirk on her face and mildly smug tone was more than enough motivation for him to promptly clap back</p>
<p>“Oh don’t worry, you can still slurp on my meat while I’m alive.”</p>
<p>At that, Anneliese choked on the ice cream in the back of her mouth, she forced herself to swallow it, causing some mild brain-freeze. She coughed a few times, hoping desperately he didn’t know what that meant, but judging by some past comments he made and the teasing tone of voice he just used, she highly suspected he knew all too well what he was saying, he wasn’t oblivious.</p>
<p>Searching for anything to change the subject, she remembered something that crossed her mind a couple times before but that she hadn’t quite found the right moment to ask about.</p>
<p>She cleared her throat before putting on a casual tone “Say.. it’s been a couple days but I haven’t caught your name yet. Unless I’m mistaken? My mind has been kinda mush lately, thanks to all that’s happened..”</p>
<p>Her words trailed off, and when she glanced at him, she noticed the corners of his mouth stretching, revealing more of the pointed teeth</p>
<p>“You’re right, you should at least know my name before we get to that.”</p>
<p>Anneliese’s eyes widened and before she got the chance to look away, her gaze froze at the sight of his maw opening, and even more so at the long, thick pink tongue that slithered out, forked in two pointed ends, one slightly longer than the other. She couldn’t look away from the way it slid over the ice cream, bringing it into his mouth where it disappeared in a few chews, not even realizing he was staring at her the entire time, including as the tongue slithered over the outside of his teeth, cleaning the leftover ice cream.</p>
<p>“I..” Anneliese began, but immediately forgot what she wanted to say, she focused on her own ice cream and kept her eyes on the laptop’s screen, unsure of how to even react.</p>
<p>She briefly flinched at the sound of his chuckle, suspecting he was amused by her uncertainty of what to say, then was somewhat relieved at the sudden change in topic, despite not knowing what he was talking about</p>
<p>“I wanted to smash it, you know…” he sounded rather thoughtful, allowing her more relief when he shifted his piercing crimson gaze away from her.</p>
<p>“S.. smash it? Smash what?”</p>
<p>“The flashing images box.” His tail flicked in the direction of the television “But I.. <em>restrained</em> myself.” Judging by his tone, he did not like that combination of words “I figured you would get.. upset?”</p>
<p>Anneliese paused and took another bite out of her ice cream, her eyebrows slightly furrowing</p>
<p>“Uh.. yeah, yeah I would have been rather upset if I woke up and found my TV smashed to bits.. Thank you for uh, not doing that, I guess..”</p>
<p>Admittedly, despite it being a bizarre thing to say you’re thankful for, she understood that at the very least it showed that he cared enough about something valuable to her to not damage it, a part of her couldn’t help but appreciate it a little.</p>
<p>“So about that.. thing from before.” She hesitated to explicitly ask for his name again when she remembered what his response to that had been the last time, yet she didn’t need to be specific.</p>
<p>When he stood up, she reflexively felt herself tense up, even more so as he hopped over on the sofa, crouching next to her, the deep dent in the cushion made by his weight causing her to almost slip towards him.</p>
<p>Before she could scoot away, he grabbed her finger between two of his, she couldn’t help but notice the size difference between them, it was almost comical, then he tapped his claw against the ring on that finger.</p>
<p>“My name’s inscribed right here, it says Azael, but you can’t read it, can you? Your grandma could.”</p>
<p>Anneliese’s jaw dropped slightly as she shook her head slowly</p>
<p>“Good, good thing you can’t read what else it says.” After that, he let go of her finger, but her brows only furrowed with more interest</p>
<p>“Wait, what else does it say?” she dared to lean towards him in a demanding fashion, needing an answer, but her enthusiasm was cut short immediately</p>
<p>“Not the best time to tell you, so don’t pester me, I’m not gonna say it, no matter how much you ask.”</p>
<p>A few thuds were heard from his tail flicking back and forth, hitting against the furniture, Anneliese’s eyes narrowed at him in a semi-serious but genuinely slightly frustrated manner, she did want to know what else the ring inscription said, but she believed him when he said he wasn’t going to tell her, she didn’t feel like wasting her time and effort.</p>
<p>A soft sigh left her “Fine, Azael..” when she closed her laptop and leaned towards the coffee table to place it on it, she noticed he had hung his arm on the backrest of the sofa behind her, so instead of leaning back, she scooted over, putting some personal space between them.</p>
<p>“What were you doing with that thing you folded up? It has moving images too.” the sudden question seemed innocent enough, she decided to answer as she pulled out her phone and responded to some messages.</p>
<p>“Oh, the laptop? I was studying.”</p>
<p>“Studying what?”</p>
<p>“I study biology.” She replied somewhat absentmindedly as most of her attention was on typing on the phone.</p>
<p>Her words were followed by some lengthy seconds of silence that didn’t really register to her, as she remained focused on the device.</p>
<p>“I can teach you a thing or two about biology. Something I bet you didn’t know.” It was both his words and the thuds heard from his tail moving back and forth, hitting against the furniture, which made her pause. She swallowed, taking a few moments to consider if he was talking about something gruesome related to human bodies that he’d known from his experience of devouring them, or something very different.</p>
<p>It didn’t take her long to realize it was something she didn’t want to think about, so she attempted to change the subject</p>
<p>“A-anyway, speaking of biology and technology.. You seemed rather annoyed at having to be near a TV playing a kid’s live-action show. I mean, more so than someone would be after having to be exposed to something they aren’t a fan of. I suspect.. you don’t like children?”</p>
<p>A brief but deep growl made her slightly tense up before he barked with visible annoyance</p>
<p>“I <em>hate </em>children!”</p>
<p>Anneliese blinked a couple times, trying to keep her focus on replying to text messages</p>
<p>“Yeah, well, I have a feeling they aren’t big fans of you either. Too bad, if you’re planning to stick around for a long time, I do eventually plan to have children when I’m older.”</p>
<p>Since she was still staring at her phone, she didn’t notice his demeanor change rather suddenly, the corners of his mouth stretched to reveal more white sharp teeth, but she did hear his smug tone of voice</p>
<p>“That’s too bad indeed, it’s not something that we-.. uh, that you can bring to fruition, you see.”</p>
<p>Again, his words made her pause, she slowly turned her puzzled and somewhat worried gaze to him, wanting to ask what exactly he was talking about; she was unsure why she didn’t get the words out, but he seemed to get her question from her expression alone.</p>
<p>“Now, I did say I know some things about biology that you don’t, didn’t I.” his tone sounded even more smug as he tilted his head to the side</p>
<p>Anneliese’s jaw opened, her racing mind quickly picking the most important question</p>
<p>“Am I infertile??” she almost whispered, but when what were supposed to be his lips stretched even more to the corners of his maw and he slowly shook his head, she was hit with both a wave of relief and something she didn’t even want to think about.</p>
<p>She decided to take a deep breath before she did or said anything, but as she went to place her phone back in her pocket, she noticed the way the talons on his feet dug into the soft cushion of the sofa, appearing as if they were moments from tearing the material to shreds.</p>
<p>“O-oh my god, get up from the sofa, now, you’re gonna pierce it!”</p>
<p>“I’ll pierce something else of yours.” He replied without skipping a beat, some of the smugness lingering in his half-casual tone</p>
<p>As if she wasn’t shaken up enough already, it made Anneliese drop what was left of her ice-cream on her tank top, and in her failed attempt to catch it she only made it roll down, staining her shorts too before falling on the floor.</p>
<p>“God<em> dammit</em>!” she abruptly stood up as if she had been sitting on a stove.</p>
<p>“That’s blasphemous.” He commented casually, prompting Anneliese to finally snap, but not before taking a step back, her cheeks heating up both from his words and her frustration at the mess.</p>
<p>“Listen! You keep doing it, It’s.. what you’re doing is.. it’s very inappropriate!”</p>
<p>Drawing multiple tissues from the box on the coffee table, she began frantically trying to get the stains out of her clothes and cleaning up the mess from the floor, although she knew the former wasn’t going to be successful, she would have to go change her clothes.</p>
<p>To Azael, on the other hand, it was as if her complaint didn’t even register to him</p>
<p>“Oh, you got it dirty. Did you get any blood on that little transparent dress when you slipped around in the bathroom? Cause I like it, shows like half of your chest.”</p>
<p>Anneliese couldn’t believe her ears, she threw him a disgruntled look before she rushed to the kitchen to throw away the remains of the ice cream and dirty tissues.</p>
<p>“Did you even catch what I said?! You can’t just..” she shouted on her way back to the living room, briefly losing her train of thought upon seeing him stand up on the sofa, nose area crinkling in the air before he seemed to gaze through the outside wall.</p>
<p>“Yes, I caught something else too.” His suddenly serious tone and demeanor as he cautiously stepped down and looked around began to worry her “I suppose I best hide, right?”</p>
<p>Anneliese frowned with confusion and concern, but she quickly got the idea when she heard the bell ringing, indicating that someone was pushing the button on the door to her yard.</p>
<p>Rushing to the window, she discreetly pushed the drapes to the side just so she could see out into the yard. The white wooden fence that her grandmother had installed was less for security and more to prevent people from stepping over the well-maintained lawn and various flowers and bushes. The gaps between the vertical planks were enough to allow her to distinguish the silhouettes of not only two people, but also a car strongly resembling a police vehicle from her partial view.</p>
<p>Immediately, her heart dropped and started pounding with anxiety, she spun around to see no sign of Azael, her eyes scanned over the room and everything else in sight in an attempt to make sure nothing looked suspicious in some way. A part of her told her it was ridiculous, her last second checkups weren’t going to catch any red flags for the police if there were any lying around, and the fact that her internal freak-out was leaking to the outside wasn’t helping her case.</p>
<p>In the short time she could afford, she did her best to breathe deeply and calm her racing heart, as well as make a point to appear as casual and clueless as she could in regards to anything the police wanted to ask her about.</p>
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